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South  American  Life 


BY 

MANY  WRITERS 


;■;;■ 


L  :•■ 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


Bancroft  Library 

Univer$'ty  of  Californls 

WITHDRAWN 


South  American  Life 


AN  ACCOUNT  OF  PAST  AND  CONTEMPORARY 
CONDITIONS  AND  PROGRESS  IN 
SOUTH  AMERICA      . 


Edited   and  Arranged  by 

ETHLYN  T.  CLOUGH 


Published    by    the 

BAY    VIEW    READING    CLUB 

CENTRAL  OFFICE,  BOSTON  BOULEVARD 

DETROIT.  MICH. 

1912 


b^ 


Copyrichted.    1912, 
BY 

JOHN   M.  HALL 


^       —  '/  or  Lolitornia 
-  VvlTHDRAWN 


PREFACE 

OUR  apology  for  presenting  this  book  is  not  that 
so  little  has  been  written  about  Latin  America, 
but  that  so  much  literature  on  this  wonderfully  inter- 
esting country  exists  that  it  is  practically  impossible 
to  get  in  concise  form,  and  brief  enough  to  be  of  use 
to  a  student,  the  important  information  necessary  to  an 
intelligent  understanding  of  the  subject. 

Many  books  have  been  written  about  South  Amer- 
ica— some  of  them  by  enthusiastic  tourists  who  may 
have  stayed  but  a  night  in  each  of  its  fascinating  old 
cities,  and  have  filled  in  their  impressions  thus  formed 
with  information  gathered  second-hand  from  other 
books  and  marvelous  tales.  Other  volumes  have  been 
written  by  conscientious  investigators  like  the  late 
William  Elroy  Curtis,  who  prepared  for  his  newspaper 
and  magazine  articles  so  much  informing  and  inter- 
esting material  about  the  countries  of  Latin  America, 
more  purely  descriptive,  however,  than  the  student 
cares  for.  And  still  other  volumes  have  been  written 
by  authoritative  and  long-time  residents,  which,  while 
they  are  all  that  can  be  desired  in  the  information  they 
afford,  are  usually  on  a  single  Republic,  in  which  the 
writer  happens  to  have  spent  his  life;  and  to  get  a 
comprehensive  knowledge  of  all  the  Latin  American 
Republics,  one  would  have  to  read  many  books. 

It  is  the  object,  therefore,  in  compiling  this  little 
volume  to  gather  together  from  this  bewildering  mass 


SIM 


4  PREFACE 

of  literature  all  that  is  best  of  the  past  and  present  of 
South  America,  and  to  give  some  idea  of  its  impor- 
tance in  the  history  and  progress  of  the  Western 
Hemisphere. 

We  have  thought  of  no  better  method  in  the  ar- 
rangement of  these  chapters  that  we  have  gathered 
together,  than  to  supplement,  if  this  vv^ere  possible,  the 
excellent  book  furnished  the  students  of  this  course  by 
the  Honorable  Mr.  Bryce;  and  to  go  v^ith  him  down 
the  Pacific  Coast,  around  the  Cape  and  up  the  Atlantic 
Coast,  pushing  somewhat  into  the  interior  and  dwell- 
ing more  in  detail,  than  has  the  author  of  South  Amer- 
ica, on  the  history,  geography,  government,  and  man- 
ners and  customs  of  the  people,  leaving  the  education, 
art,  music,  and  literature  of  the  country  to  be  devel- 
oped in  the  magazine  articles  that  will  portray  on  a 
broader  canvas  the  Latin  life  of  our  sister  continent. 
Some  of  these  chapters  have  been  especially  prepared 
for  the  book,  while  others  have  been  gathered  from 
reliable  sources,  and  a  key-letter  at  the  end  of  each 
refers  the  reader  to  the  last  page  of  the  book  where 
due  credit  is  given.  Liberty  has  been  taken  to  revise 
and  correct  the  material  to  date,  to  eliminate  unim- 
portant matter,  and  to  edit  the  whole  in  the  interest 
of  a  smooth  and  harmonious  fabric. 

Ethlyn  T.  Clough. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I  PAGE 

Introduction  7 

CHAPTER  n 
The  Geography  of  South  America 17 

CHAPTER  HI 
Fragments  of  History 31 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Wars  of  Independence 50 

CHAPTER  V 
The  Geography  of  the  Isthmus 68 

CHAPTER  VI 
The  Panamanians 80 

CHAPTER  VII 
Events  Leading  to  Independence 92 

CHAPTER  VIII 
The  Mountain  Republics 110 

CHAPTER  IX 
The  People  and  Their  Increase 133 

CHAPTER  X 
Peru's  Growth  and  Government 146 

5 

\ 


6  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XI 
Chilean   Conditions 161 

CHAPTER  Xn 
Argentine  Types,  Manners,  and  Morals....  175 

CHAPTER  Xni 
Life  on  the  Pampas 187 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Venezuela  and  the  Venezuelans 198 

CHAPTER  XV 
South  American  Characteristics 213 

CHAPTER  XVI 
Thr  Two  Americas 226 


South  American  Life 


CHAPTER  I 


INTRODUCTION 


IT  is  a  significant  fact  in  the  world's  civilization  that 
the  entire  Western  Hemisphere  consists  of  a  group 
of  republics,  twenty-one  in  number,  the  most  impor- 
tant, of  course,  being  our  own  United  States  of  North 
America,  the  remaining  twenty  forming  what  is  gen- 
erally known  as  Latin  America.  Eleven  of  these 
twenty  are  South  American  republics,  and  it  is  with 
them  that  we  shall  directly  deal  in  this  volume, 
South  American  Life. 

Discovered  almost  at  the  same  time  as  its  southern 
sister,  in  the  last  decade  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the 
northern  continent  has  progressed  in  many  ways  diver- 
gent with  the  progress  of  the  southern  continent.  In 
all  that  has  been  written  of  the  two  continents,  only 
one  reason  has  been  given  for  the  great  development 
of  the  one,  and  the  retardation,  in  many  ways,  of  the 
other,  and  it  is  this:  "North  America  was  settled  by 
men  who  came  to  the  New  World  seeking  liberty; 
South  America  was  exploited  by  adventurers  hunting 
for  gold.  Our  colonists  cleared  land,  planted  l>lds, 
and  established  homes;  when  the  time  came  to  sepa- 


8  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

rate  from  the  Old  Country,  they  had  a  stable  society, 
an  adequate  political  system  spontaneously  developed, 
and  a  familiarity  with  self-government  that  had  been 
preparing  from  the  time  of  the  Magna  Charta. 

"South  America  was  discovered  and  conquered  by 
an  unbridled  lust  for  gold.  Whether  it  was  the  ag- 
gressions of  the  English  on  the  Spanish  Main,  or  the 
Dutch  and  French  near  the  Amazon,  or  of  the  Portu- 
guese in  Brazil,  or  of  the  Spanish  on  the  Rio  de  la 
Plata,  in  Chile,  Peru,  or  Panama,  practically  the  only 
motive  actuating  the  colonists  was  the  desire  to  exploit 
or  to  despoil  the  territories  they  discovered,  and  with 
their  booty  to  hurry  back  to  Europe,  there  to  enroll 
themselves  among  the  rich  and  to  become  part  of  an 
idle  aristocracy. 

"The  civilization  of  the  Incas  was  destroyed,  and 
this  industrious,  skilled  people — adapted  to  their  envi- 
ronment, capable  of  attaining  a  level  we  only  can  guess 
at,  once  acquainted  with  the  civilization  of  Europe — 
annihilated.  All  that  they  had  done  perished  with 
them,  and  the  new  owners  of  the  land  had  to  begin  at 
the  beginning.  When  Bolivar  and  San  Martin  fol- 
lowed the  lead  of  Washington  and  Latin  America 
threw  off  the  yoke  of  Spain,  its  people  had  had  no 
training  in  self-government,  nor  even  in  useful  indus- 
try, and  their  ideal  was  still  the  antique  and  romantic 
one  of  the  intrepid  warrior  and  successful  conqueror. 
This  was  the  seed.  The  harvest  has  been  reaped  all 
these  years  in  revolutions  and  more  wonderful  wars 
for  independence  than  we  ever  dreamed  of.    A  conti- 


INTRODUCTION  9 

nent  can  not  be  plowed  and  resown  like  a  cornfield. 
Education,  immigration,  the  gradual  infusion  of  saner 
ideals  and  more  stable  blood — 'it  is  a  long,  discouraging 
task  that  earnest  Latin  Americans  of  today  are  wres- 
tling with,  one  in  which  they  ought  to  have  our  appre- 
ciation and  sympathy,  and  to  be  able  to  bestow  these 
we  must  first  have  a  knowledge  of  the  situation." 

In  no  way  can  we  better  come  to  an  understanding 
of  our  relations  and  our  duties  to  our  sister  country, 
and  in  no  way  can  we  have  a  better  introduction  to  our 
study  than  by  quoting  the  racial  contrasts,  the  moral 
contrasts,  the  progress  and  the  local  differences  that 
Mr.  Albert  Hale  points  out  to  us  in  the  introduction 
to  his  recent  book.  The  South  Americans. 

Mr.  Hale  says  that  "we  should  not  allow  ourselves 
to  think  that  we  are  altogether  virtuous,  nor  that  the 
Latin  races  are  altogether  vicious.  If  we  are  practical 
and  progressive,  if  we  recognize  the  gain  to  the  human 
race  by  modern  industry  and  commerce,  if  we  have  the 
skill  and  energy  and  knowledge  to  make  two  blades  of 
grass  grow  where  one  grew  before,  they  have  a  poetry, 
a  sprightliness  of  imagination  which  we  lack ;  if  we  are 
solid  and  rationally  hospitable,  they  are  cordial  and 
spontaneously  hospitable,  and  they  have  preserved  a 
kindliness  in  their  social  intercourse  which  we  might 
well  emulate.  If  the  Anglo-Saxon  idea  of  the  home  is 
one  that  seems  to  come  closest  to  the  ideal,  we  should 
not  forget  that  certain  phases  of  the  home  life  in 
southern  Europe  and  South  America  are  very  sweet, 
commendable,  and  worthy  of  admiration  and  emula- 


10  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

tion.  If  our  restlessness  of  spirit  leads  us  to  the  assump- 
tion of  new  duties  and  to  an  expansion  of  interests 
which  exhaust  our  energies  and  foster  discontent  with 
present  conditions,  their  lack  of  it,  which  we  are  apt  to 
call  laziness  or  indolence,  helps  to  preserve  the  poetry 
of  life,  and  often  tends  to  a  peace  and  happiness  for 
which  we  sigh. 

"We  have  not  much  to  boast  of  in  the  way  of 
superiority,  either  morally  or  commercially.  Although 
the  average  North  American  business  man  is  faithful 
to  his  obligations,  so  also  is  the  average  South  Amer- 
ican, as  the  credit  system  of  English  and  German 
exporters  bears  steady  witness.  In  the  main,  our 
moral  standards  are  higher,  even  if  we  do  not  live  up 
to  them,  but  their  business  dealings  are  honorable  and 
fair.  In  the  domestic  virtues  they  are  equal  to  us, 
and  their  sacredness  of  family  ties  is  unsurpassed. 
The  women  of  the  upper  classes  are  as  good  wives  and 
mothers,  according  to  their  light,  as  women  in  other 
parts  of  the  world;  they  have  a  horror  of  divorce, 
partly  because  it  is  anti-Catholic,  and  partly  because  it 
is  contrary  to  their  conception  of  the  marriage  sacra- 
ment. Among  the  lower  classes  illegitimacy  is  com- 
mon ;  but  if  we  give  credence  to  the  disclosures  of  the 
working-people  in  our  large  industrial  centers,  the  lack 
of  illegitimate  children  does  not  by  any  means  imply 
purity.  There  is  a  vital  distinction  between  morality 
and  virtue,  and  the  problem  with  us  is  the  same  as  it 
is  with  them,  except  that  the  Latin  American  man  has 
no  conception  of  chastity. 


*  INTRODUCTION  11 

"They  are  superior  to  us  in  one  respect.  Undoubt- 
edly the  sense  of  beauty,  the  appreciation  of  what  is 
artistic,  is  far  more  highly  developed  with  South 
Americans  than  with  us.  It  is  hard  to  find  in  their 
countries  ugliness  in  extended  form.  Utilitarianism, 
such  as  characterizes  our  activities,  is  but  a  flickering 
factor  in  their  life ;  admiration  for  northern  ways  and 
customs  is  spreading,  but  as  a  race  or  nation  they 
can  not  sacrifice  their  artistic  tastes  to  such  an  extent 
as  to  tolerate  ugliness,  even  if  thereby  a  material  gain 
is  effected.  Growing  out  of  this  is  another  condition 
in  which  we  must  acknowledge  our  inferiority.  I 
mean  the  admirable  condition  of  their  municipal  af- 
fairs. Their  cities,  as  instances  of  urban  life,  are 
much  better  than  ours.  The  Spaniards  and  Portu- 
guese, following  their  innate  love  of  beauty,  always 
selected  for  settlements  sites  that  can  not  be  sur- 
passed for  their  natural  attractions.  The  City  of 
Mexico,  Panama,  Caracas,  Rio  de  Janeiro,  even  Monte- 
video, bear  witness  to  this;  but  when  their  cities  be- 
came more  than  mere  temporary  stations  for  shipment 
or  commerce,  when,  within  the  last  generation,  a  grow- 
ing population  demanded  a  municipal  expansion,  this 
popular  love  for  harmony  and  beauty  was  never  vio- 
lated. Today  the  cities  of  South  America  are  pleasing 
and  inviting  to  the  eye.  The  contrast  between  them 
and  our  own  cities,  both  as  to  location,  use  of  natural 
advantages  and  financial  organization,  shows  against 
us  very  unfavorably. 

"Their  two  great  points  of  inferiority  are  material 


12  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

development  and  public  education.  Where  they  have 
vast  unexplored  tracts  of  land,  fertile  and  fat,  waiting 
only  for  human  activity  to  produce  food  for  millions, 
they  have  neglected  their  duty  to  mankind  and  left  the 
soil  untouched;  whereas  we,  with  restless  energy  and 
even  extravagance,  have  eagerly  utilized  our  open 
spaces,  and  have  so  yielded  to  this  impulse  that  we  have 
pushed  ourselves  into  the  position  of  one  of  the  fore- 
most nations  of  the  earth,  and  occupied,  within  little 
more  than  a  century,  an  area  equal  to  that  of  Brazil. 
The  development  of  our  educational  system  is  the  re- 
sult of  our  intellectual  and  moral  ambitions,  and  while 
it  may  not  be  perfect,  it  arouses  the  admiration  of  the 
world  and  is  undoubtedly  the  foundation-stone  of  our 
democracy.  Education  in  South  America  means  al- 
most entirely  culture  for  the  upper,  the  aristocratic 
class,  and  superficially  imparted  elements  for  the  lower 
laboring  class. 

"And  lastly,  where  we  often  come  together  is  on 
the  plane  of  political  corruption  comprised  in  the 
shameful  but  expressive  term  of  graft.  That  we  are 
better  than  our  ancestors  is  possibly  true,  but  that 
we  are  better  than  our  neighbors  will  be  a  difficult 
task  to  prove.  Corruption  has  been  the  birth-mark  of 
Latin  politics  since  the  Christian  era;  it  is  nearly  as 
prevalent  today  as  it  was  when  Ferdinand  drove  out 
the  Moor,  but  it  is  not  worse  today  than  it  is  with  us. 
The  saving  factor  in  our  government  is  our  natural 
morality — 'the  simple  honesty  among  the  people,  and 
our   genuine,    deep-rooted,   but   sometimes    forgotten 


INTRODUCTION  13 

respect  for  the  law.  Crimes  we  commit  with  startling 
frequency,  but  we  are  glad  when  the  law  is  enforced 
and  we  hope  to  see  it  obeyed.  In  South  America  there 
is  the  redeeming  fact  that  political  graft  satisfies  itself 
by  a  charge  of  two  or  twenty  times  the  cost  of  the 
work  done,  but  they  usually  insist  that  the  work  be 
done  honestly  and  according  to  the  best  obtainable 
specifications.  The  codified  laws  are,  however,  far 
above  the  heads  of  the  common  people;  they  may  be 
afraid  of  the  law,  but  they  do  not  understand  it;  it 
is  artificial  and  often  transgresses  their  instincts. 
And,  moreover,  they  have  not  what  I  have  called  a 
moral  sense.  Yet  any  accusations  of  corruption 
which  may  be  laid  at  their  doors  can,  with  equal  jus- 
tice, in  the  light  of  our  recent  investigations,  be  laid 
at  ours.  A  few  ofiices  in  our  own  national  govern- 
ment— president,  cabinet  members,  and  supreme  court 
judges — are  surely  impeccable,  but  the  same  can  not 
be  said  of  every  country  in  South  America. 

"Are  there,  then,  any  factors  which  are  tending  to 
modify  these  evident  differences?  I  am  sure  there 
are.  The  adoption  of  steam  and  electricity  is  general- 
izing ideas  and  habits,  so  that  an  improvement  in  one 
part  of  the  world  is  soon  appreciated,  understood  and 
adopted  in  another  part.  We  accept  European  ad- 
vances in  physical  and  mental  comforts  and  luxuries, 
and  the  South  American,  with  increasing  momentum, 
is  accepting  those  which  come  both  from  Europe  and 
from  us.  Even  the  lower  classes  are  no  longer  iso- 
lated.   But  beyond  that  is  the  newer  fact  that  they  are 


14  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

absorbing  some  of  the  same  blood  that  we  have,  and 
that  onto  their  Latin  stock  is  engrafting  a  vigorous 
branch  of  Northernism.  They  are  no  longer  purely 
Iberian  or  Lusitanian.  The  invasion  of  outsiders  is 
not  going  on  so  "rapidly  as  it  did  with  us,  but  it  is 
undeniably  evident,  and  not  many  generations  will  be 
needed  before  a  vigorous  mixed  race  will  push  into 
the  background  the  pure-blooded  Latin  who  can  not 
stand  the  pace.  This  migration  and  intermingling  has 
two  great  causes:  the  desire  to  escape  into  a  republi- 
can form  of  government,  and  the  age-old  impulse  to 
make  use  of  virgin  land. 

"There  are  three  principles  of  government  polity: 
The  completely  republican,  such  as  we  represent  and 
such  as  is,  constitutionally  at  least,  represented  by  the 
independent  nations  of  the  Western  Hemisphere;  the 
limited  monarchy,  of  which  Great  Britain  is  the  con- 
stitutional type  and  Germany  the  military  and  bureau- 
cratic type;  and  the  autocratic  monarchy,  of  which 
Russia  is  the  chief  example.  And  the  genius  of  each 
of  these  principles  is  at  work  constructing  South 
America,  as  we  shall  see  before  we  have  finished  this 
volume. 

"Of  equal  importance  is  that  phase  of  modern  ex- 
pansion in  which  the  land  question  plays  an  all-power- 
ful part.  With  the  areas  of  China,  Japan,  and  India 
overcrowded ;  with  the  mutterings  of  what  we  call  the 
Eastern  peril,  it  is  easy  to  observe  that,  besides  Africa, 
uncertain  areas  of  Australia,  and  the  newer  fields  of 
western  Canada,  there  is  no  other  continent  capable  of 


INTRODUCTION  15 

offering  virgin  soils  to  the  exuberant  and  rapidly 
growing  discontented  dwellers  of  the  Qld  World,  ex- 
cept South  America." 

On  the  western  slope  of  the  Andes  are  Chile,  Peru, 
Bolivia,  Ecuador,  and  Colombia,  which  may  be  called 
the  mountain  republics.  Their  chief  industries  will 
be  those,  such  as  mining,  in  which  is  demanded  a 
minimum  of  human  and  a  maximum  of  machine  labor. 
They  have  untilled  fertile  land,  but  not  enough  to 
draw  great  immigration,  and  it  is  to  a  noticeable  ex- 
tent already  occupied  by  native  races  who  were  im- 
pressed by  the  stamp  of  the  Spanish  conqueror,  al- 
though there  is  so  much  original  blood  that  they  can 
by  no  means  be  compared  to  an  Old  World  peasantry. 
These  countries  on  the  Pacific  Ocean  offer  no  attrac- 
tion for  the  European  statesman  who  dreams  of  an 
American  sphere  of  influence;  they  are  isolated  by 
the  lofty  Andes,  by  thousands  of  miles  of  water;  but 
they  will  soon  be  made  easily  approachable  to  us  by 
the  completion  of  the  Panama  Canal,  so  that  they  will 
develop  along  American  lines  with  eagerness  if  we 
treat  them  fairly. 

For  three-qiuarters  of  a  century  we  have  led  this 
victorious  army  of  republics,  and  for  even  a  longer 
time  than  that  our  influence  has  been  felt.  But  it  is 
evident  that  there  are  to  be  new  and  closer  relations 
between  the  two  continents  of  the  Western  Hemi- 
sphere, and  in  order  to  make  the  most  of  these  rela- 
tions we  must  learn  more  about  our  southern  neigh- 
bors; we  must  study  their  ambitions  and  their  pros- 


16  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

pects  and  put  much  of  the  leaven  of  brotherhood  into 
our  dealings  with  them.  We  must  give  a  more  vital 
interpretation  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  that  we  may 
be  enabled  to  stand  more  firmly  between  the  South 
American  Republics  and  the  unscrupulous  aggressions 
of  Europe.'* 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA 

PERHAPS  a  fact  not  generally  known  is  that  South 
America  is  greater  in  area  than  North  America, 
and  is  situated  to  the  east  of  the  Northern  Hemi- 
sphere. If  you  are  on  Fifth  Avenue  in  New  York 
City,  the  line  which  your  eye  takes  looking  down  the 
hill  towards  Madison  Square,  were  it  continued  far 
enough  south,  would  hit  South  America  near  the  west 
coast  of  Peru.  Practically  all  of  the  continent  is  east 
of  such  an  imaginary  line,  and  from  this  point  to 
Cape  St.  Roque  is  as  far  as  from  New  York  to  San 
Francisco ;  from  Cartagena  in  the  Caribbean  to  Punta 
Arenas  in  Patagonia  is  as  far  as  from  Key  West  to 
the  North  Pole.  There  are  nearly  half  a  million  more 
square  miles  within  these  extremes  than  in  all  of 
North  America. 

Between  the  "twin  continents,"  as  the  northern 
and  southern  sections  of  the  Western  Hemisphere 
have  been  called,  the  transitions  are  everywhere  so 
gradual  that  it  is  not  at  first  sight  easy  to  say  where 
one  ends  and  the  other  begins.  But  when  the  question 
is  studied  on  a  large-scale  map,  we  see  at  once  that  the 
true  natural  limits  are  laid  down,  at  the  northwest 
extremity  of  the  southern  section,  by  the  Gulf  of 
Darien,  which  formerly  penetrated  much  farther  in- 

17 


18  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

land  than  at  present,  if  it  did  not  even  present  a  free 
waterway  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  Oceans. 

So  obvious  are  the  points  of  resemblance  between 
these  divisions  that  they  strike  the  eye  at  first  glance. 
Both  present  the  same  rough,  triangular  shape,  with 
base  inclined  from  northwest  to  southeast,  and  sides 
of  nearly  equal  length  converging  to  the  apex  south- 
wards. In  superficial  extent  there  is  little  difference, 
the  northern  triangle  scarcely  exceeding  the  southern 
by  one-eighth,  while  a  surprising  parallelism  is  pre- 
sented by  the  general  relief,  the  disposition  of  moun- 
tain ranges,  tablelands,  plains,  and  fluvial  basins.  To 
the  Rocky  Mountains  and  Central  Sierras  correspond 
the  Andean  Cordilleras,  both  running  close  to  the  west 
coast,  and  ramifying  at  intervals  into  two  or  even 
three  branches,  which  enclose  vast  plateaux  often  of 
great  elevation.  Indeed,  the  resemblances  are  here  so 
striking,  and  extend  to  so  many  secondary  features, 
such  as  active  and  extinct  volcanoes  with  extensive 
lava  fields  and  other  igneous  matter  overlying  sedi- 
mentary formations,  that  a  unity  of  the  orographic 
system  from  Fuegia  to  Alaska  is  suggested. 

On  the  Atlantic  side  the  correspondence  is  main- 
tained by  the  Alleghanies  in  the  north  and  in  the  south 
by  the  Sierra  de  Merida,  the  Sierra  de  Mar,  and  the 
Brazilian  highlands.  In  both  continents,  the  western 
and  eastern  mountain  systems  enclose  boundless  cen- 
tral plains — prairies,  savannahs,  llanos,  pampas,  wood- 
lands— which  are  traversed  in  much  the  same  direc- 
tions by  a  few  fluvial  arteries  rivaling  or  surpassing 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA      19 

in  volume,  length,  and  drainage  area  the  great  rivers 
of  the  Eastern  Hemisphere.  With  two  important  ex- 
ceptions— Mackenzie  and  Yukon — the  outfall  is  to  the 
Atlantic,  recipient  also  of  so  many  running  waters  on 
its  eastern  seaboard.  Thus  Churchill,  St.  Lawrence, 
and  Hudson  trending  east  and  the  Missouri-Missis- 
sippi with  a  southerly  course,  find  their  exact  coun- 
terparts in  the  Orinoco  and  Amazon  on  the  one  hand 
and  the  Parana-Paraguay  on  the  other. 

But  these  analogies,  which  lie  somewhat  on  the 
surface,  are  perhaps  more  than  balanced  by  the  con- 
trasts, which  are  in  some  respects  of  greater  moment, 
and  on  the  whole  more  favorable  to  the  north  than 
to  the  south.  Foremost  among  these  is  the  position 
in  respect  of  the  poles  and  the  equator.  Here  the  dis- 
crepancy is  enormous,  sufficient  in  fact  to  constitute 
the  southern  division  mainly  a  tropical  country,  and 
the  northern  mainly  temperate.  To  be  sure,  much  of 
North  America  seems  to  lie  within  the  Arctic  Circle, 
or  near  enough  to  be  called  Arctic.  But  the  absolute 
area  of  this  section,  consisting  so  largely  of  archipel- 
agos with  extensive  intervening  water-surfaces,  is 
less  than  is  commonly  supposed,  and  is  amply  compen- 
sated by  the  bulging  out  and  consequent  great  average 
breadth  of  the  continent  in  more  favorable  latitudes. 

But  the  very  opposite  is  the  case  of  South  Amer- 
ica, where  the  bulging  takes  place  about  the  equator, 
with  a  consequent  excess  of  heat  and  moisture,  and 
where  beyond  the  tropic  of  Capricorn,  the  land  tapers 
so  rapidly  southwards  that  but  a  relatively  small  area 


20  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

is  extra-tropical.  Here  only  a  fraction  of  the  southern 
continent  would  be  suitable  for  European  settlement 
were  the  tropical  heat  not  tempered  by  the  great  ele- 
vation of  the  Brazilian  and  Andean  uplands,  and  by 
the  moderating  influence  of  sea  breezes  from  the 
Atlantic.  Owing  to  these  favorable  conditions  the 
general  climate  of  South  America  is  more  equable 
and  cooler  by  several  degrees  than  that  of  the  African 
continent.  Thus  the  isothermal  line  of  greatest  heat, 
which  runs  from  the  isthmus  of  Panama  mainly  along 
the  seaboard  to  Cape  San  Roque,  intersecting  the 
equator  at  the  Amazon  estuary,  ranges  from  about 
80°  to  82"  F.,  while  the  temperature  of  the  corre- 
sponding heat  zone  on  the  east  side  of  the  Atlantic 
normally  exceeds  86°   F. 

Other  important  consequences,  also  to  the  advan- 
tage of  the  north,  follow  from  this  general  latitudinal 
position  of  the  twin  continents.  During  the  glacial 
epochs,  whether  simultaneous  or  not  on  either  side 
of  the  equator,  a  fairly  warm  temperature  must  have 
at  all  times  prevailed  in  inter-tropical  South  America, 
with  the  result  that  the  running  waters  suffered  no 
serious  arrest,  but  continued  their  natural  process  of 
development  without  interruption  except  in  the  sub- 
arctic lands  of  the  extreme  south. 

Hence  on  the  Chilian  coast  and  in  Fuegia  alone 
are  found  those  peculiar  fjord-like  formations  which, 
as  in  Scandinavia  and  Greenland,  are  due  to  the 
grinding  action  of  glaciers  or  frozen  streams.  Else- 
where the  rivers  have  excavated  their  beds  down  to 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA      21 

their  natural  levels,  and  in  so  doing  have  drained 
nearly  all  the  old  lacustrine  basins  and  effaced  most 
of  the  falls  and  rapids  which  formerly  abounded  in 
many  districts.  Cataracts  still  survive  in  the  Colom- 
bian and  Peruvian  Andes,  on  the  Parana,  the  Madeira 
and  elsewhere ;  but  all  the  large  lakes  have  disappeared 
except  Titicaca  and  the  still  periodically  flooded  Mojos 
basin  about  the  Amazon-Parana  water-parting,  at  the 
northern  extremity  of  the  old  Pampean  Sea.  Even 
Titicaca,  though  still  an  imposing  sheet  of  water,  is 
little  more  than  a  highland  loch  compared  to  its  vast 
dimensions  in  Secondary  and  Tertiary  times.  Colonel 
G.  E.  Church  tells  us  in  his  Geographical  Journeys 
that  "geological  examinations  show  that  Titicaca  was 
once  one  of  the  large  lakes  of  the  world,  and  that  it 
has  slowly  been  drying  up." 

How  different  from  all  this  the  picture  presented 
by  the  northern  continent,  where  glacial  action  attained 
a  greater  development  than  in  any  other  part  of  the 
world,  where  the  ice-cap,  thousands  of  feet  thick, 
advanced  and  retreated  more  than  once  over  vast  areas 
millions  of  miles  in  extent,  and  where  icebergs  in  great 
numbers  are  still  annually  discharged  from  the  Green- 
land and  Alaskan  glaciers.  Hence  the  mighty  streams 
held  in  their  icy  fetters  till  far  into  the  Pleistocene  age 
have  not  since  had  time  to  arrive  at  maturity.  They 
still  tumble  over  some  of  the  grandest  falls  on  the 
globe,  and  have  left  undrained  great  lakes  of  the 
Laurentian  basin  and  many  others  strewn  over  the 
Canadian  Dominion,  while  the  seaboard  is  so  finely 


22  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

diversified  with  fjords,  gulfs,  bays,  and  other  inlets 
that  it  presents  26,000  miles  of  contour-lines  compared 
with  19,000  miles  of  the  somewhat  monotonous  South 
American  coastlands. 

Practically  the  South  American  coasts,  always  ex- 
cepting Chile,  Patagonia,  and  Fuegia,  have  no  wind- 
ings or  inlets  beyond  the  relatively  insignificant  Gulfs 
of  Darien  and  Venezuela  in  the  north  and  Guayaquil 
on  the  west,  with  the  still  smaller  bays  of  Rio  de 
Janeiro  and  Bahia  on  the  east  side.  The  few  other 
indentations  are  not  marine  inlets,  but  great  fluvial 
estuaries,  which  by  the  deposits  of  silt  are  being 
slowly  transformed  to  deltas  like  that  of  the  Orinoco, 
or  else  converted  into  alluvial  plains  like  that  of  the 
Rio  Colorado.  Formerly  the  lower  reaches  of  this 
Pampean  stream  presented  the  aspect  of  a  very  large 
estuary  running  over  one  hundred  miles  inland, 
though  still  greatly  inferior  to  those  of  the  Plate  and 
Amazon,  which  are  amongst  the  most  typical  and  ex- 
tensive of  such  formations  in  the  world. 

There  is  also  a  remarkable  absence  of  islands  or 
insular  groups.  South  America  showing  in  this  respect 
a  close  analogy  with  the  two  other  great  Austral  lands. 
As  South  Africa  has  its  Madagascar  and  Southern 
Australia  its  Tasmania,  so  the  southern  continent  of 
the  Western  Hemisphere  terminates  in  Terra  del 
Fuego.  The  few  insular  groups  in  the  Caribbean 
Sea  should  either  be  grouped  with  the  West  Indian 
system  or  else  regarded  as  almost  still  forming  part 
of  the  mainland.     And  now,  keeping  these  compari- 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA      23 

sons  in  mind,  let  us  go  more  into  detail  regarding 
South  America. 

The  southern  continent  extends  from  about  12** 
North  latitude  to  about  55°  South,  and  from  about  the 
35th  meridian  west  of  Greenwich  to  about  the  80th. 
Its  area  is  estimated  at  6,837,000  square  miles,  or  391,- 
000  square  miles  greater  than  that  of  North  America- 

Along  the  west  coast,  from  Panama  to  Cape  Horn, 
runs  the  wall  of  the  Andes,  separated  from  the  Pacific 
by  a  comparative  ribbon  of  land  and  varying  from 
fifty  to  several  hundred  miles  in  width.  There  are 
mountains  in  eastern  Brazil,  but  these  are  so  low, 
comparatively  speaking,  that  the  continent  may  be 
said  to  slope  eastward  from  the  Andes  to  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  and  the  Caribbean.  In  the  Andes  is  the  highest 
land  in  the  Western  Hjemisphere,  supposed  to  be  Mt. 
Aconcagua,  about  23,000  feet.  Many  other  Andean 
peaks  are  over  20,000  feet.  The  highest  navigable 
lake  in  the  world  is  Titicaca,  which  is  situated  at  an 
altitude  of  nearly  13,000  feet,  on  the  boundary  be- 
tween Bolivia  and  Peru. 

The  principal  rivers  are  the  Amazon,  which  trav- 
erses nearly  the  entire  breadth  of  the  continent  and  is 
the  largest  river  in  the  world;  the  Orinoco  and  La 
Plata,  with  its  two  great  tributaries,  the  Parana  and 
Uruguay.  West  of  the  Andes  and  between  upper 
Peru  and  upper  Chile  there  is  practically  no  rainfall, 
the  moisture  condensing  and  falling  before  the  clouds 
can  pass  the  Andean  rampart. 

The  configuration  of  the  surface  is  divided  into  five 


24  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

physical  regions :  ( 1 )  Low-country  skirting  the  shores 
of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  from  50  to  150  miles  in  breadth, 
and  4,000  miles  in  length.  The  two  extremities  of  this 
territory  are  fertile,  the  middle  a  sandy  desert.  (2) 
The  basin  of  the  Orinoco,  a  country  consisting  of  ex- 
tensive plains  or  steppes,  called  Llanos,  either  desti- 
tute of  timber  or  merely  dotted  with  trees,  but  covered 
with  a  very  tall  herbage  during  a  part  of  the  year. 
During  the  dry  season  the  heat  is  intense  here  and  the 
parched  soil  opens  into  long  fissures  in  which  lizzards 
and  serpents  lie  in  a  state  of  torpor.  (3)  The  basin 
of  the  Amazon  is  a  vast  plain  embracing  a  surface  of 
more  than  two  million  square  miles,  having  a  rich  soil 
and  a  humid  climate.  It  is  covered  almost  everywhere 
with  dense  forests,  which  harbor  innumerable  tribes 
of  wild  animals,  and  are  thinly  inhabited  by  savages, 
who  live  by  hunting  and  fishing.  The  great  southern 
plain,  watered  by  the  Platte  and  the  numerous  streams 
descending  from  the  eastern  summits  of  the  Cordil- 
leras. Open  steppes,  which  are  called  Pampas,  occupy 
the  greater  proportion  of  this  region,  which  is  dry, 
and  in  some  parts  barren,  but  is  generally  covered 
with  a  strong  growth  of  weeds  and  tall  grass,  upon 
which  feed  great  herds  of  horses  and  cattle,  and  which 
affords  shelter  for  a  few  wild  animals.  (5)  The 
country  of  Brazil,  eastward  of  the  Parana  and  Uru- 
guay, presenting  alternate  ridges  and  valleys,  thickly 
covered  with  wood  on  the  side  next  the  Atlantic,  and 
opening  into  steppes  or  pastures  in  the  interior. 

Having  thus  considered  the  resemblance  between 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA      25 

the  northern  and  southern  continents  of  the  Western 
Hemisphere,  and  taken  a  general  survey  of  the  phys- 
ical features  of  South  America,  let  us  turn  our  atten- 
tion to  the  political  divisions  of  the  southern  continent, 
which  at  present  consist  of  ten  independent  republics : 
Argentina,  Bolivia,  Brazil,  Colombia,  Chile,  Ecuador, 
Paraguay,  Peru,  Uruguay,  and  Venezuela;  and  the 
colonies  of  Guiana  under  the  British,  French,  and 
Dutch.  Besides  these,  there  is  the  Isthmus  of  Panama, 
which  has  recently  gained  its  independence,  and  is  no 
longer  considered  a  part  of  South  America,  but  an 
independent  and  individual  country. 

Commencing  with  the  first  of  these  republics, 
which  we  have  named  in  alphabetical  order,  we  find 
that  the  Argentine  Republic  extends  from  latitude  22° 
South  to  56°  South,  and  from  the  summit  of  the 
Andes  to  the  Atlantic.  The  area  is  1,212,000  square 
miles,  or  about  five  and  a  half  times  that  of  France. 
A  recent  estimate  of  the  population  places  it  beyond 
the  six  million  mark,  with  one  million  of  this  figure 
in  the  city  of  Buenos  Aires.  For  nearly  three  hundred 
years  after  the  discovery  of  the  River  Plate,  in  1516, 
the  part  of  South  America  now  known  as  the  Argen- 
tine Republic  belonged  to  the  viceroyalty  of  the 
River  Plate.  In  1810,  the  Viceroy  Baltasar  de  Cis- 
neros  was  deposed,  in  1816,  independence  was  de- 
clared, and  in  1825  the  new  Republic  was  recognized. 
From  then  until  1880  there  was  more  or  less  continu- 
ous trouble  between  the  Portenos,  people  of  the  gate, 
of  Buenos  Aires,  who  wished  to  dominate  or  separate 


26  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

from  the  confederation,  and  the  provinces  who  were 
jealous  of  Buenos  Aires.  The  result  was  the  making 
of  Buenos  Aires  a  federal  district  and  a  strong  cen- 
tral government  instead  of  a  loose  confederation. 
The  Argentine  Republic  includes  within  its  boundaries 
the  country  once  known  as  Patagonia,  and  still  known 
by  that  name  as  a  province  of  the  new  republic.  The 
Rio  de  la  Plata,  with  its  tributaries,  the  Parana  and  the 
Uruguay,  drains  an  area  of  3,103,000  square  kilo- 
meters— slightly  more  than  is  drained  by  the  Missis- 
sippi. 

Bolivia,  named  in  honor  of  Bolivar,  the  liberator 
of  northern  South  America,  gained  independence  in 
1825.  In  the  war  of  1879  with  Chile  it  lost  its  sea- 
coast,  and  it  is  now  completely  landlocked.  Trade 
with  the  outside  world  is  carried  on  through  Chilian 
ports  and  the  Peruvian  port  of  Ollendo  by  way  of 
Lake  Titicaca.  Most  of  the  cities  are  situated  on 
the  high  western  tableland,  which,  at  the  ancient  town 
of  Potosi,  rises  to  nearly  14,000  feet.  La  Paz,  the  capi- 
tal, with  a  population  of  about  79,000,  is  situated  at 
an  altitude  of  3,630  meters,  over  12,000  feet.  The 
area  of  Bolivia  is  estimated  at  709,000  square  miles, 
or  only  about  60,000  less  than  that  of  Mexico;  it  is 
the  third  country  in  size  in  South  America.  The  popu- 
lation is  estimated  at  2,300,000,  of  which  about  one- 
fifth  are  white  and  the  rest  Indians  and  mixed  races. 

Brazil,  which  borders  on  the  Atlantic,  is  the  larg- 
est country  of  South  America,  and  extends  from  4° 
North  latitude  to  nearly  34°  South,  with  a  coast-line 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA      27 

about  4,000  miles  in  length.  Its  greatest  width,  from 
east  to  west,  is  between  a  point  in  the  State  of  Per- 
nambuco  and  one  On  the  frontier  of  Peru,  in  longitude 
30°  and  58'  West,  the  distance  between  these  two 
points  being  4,350  kilometers,  or  about  3,500  miles. 
The  area  is  estimated  at  3,218,991  square  miles,  or 
about  as  large  as  the  United  States,  including  Alaska. 
A  recent  estimate  gives  the  population  as  20,000,000, 
of  which  one-third  to  one-half  is  white.  The  capital 
is  Rio  Janeiro — population  about  820,000;  the  princi- 
pal cities  Sao  Paulo,  with  332,000  population;  Bahia, 
230,000;  Pernambuco,  120,000;  Belem,  100,000;  Port 
Alegre,  80,000;  Manaos,  40,000.  Several  other  cities 
have  over  30,000. 

Chile  extends  from  16°  30'  South  latitude  to  Cape 
Horn,  about  2,300  miles,  and  from  the  crest  of  the 
Andes  to  the  Pacific,  an  average  breadth  of  130  miles. 
The  area  is  307,620  square  miles,  or  about  50,000 
square  miles  larger  than  Texas.  The  country  is  ex- 
tremely mountainous  and  has  no  large  rivers.  The 
population  of  the  republic  is  about  5,000,000,  400,000 
of  which  are  residents  of  the  capital,  Santiago;  the 
remainder  of  the  population  is  in  the  rural  districts 
and  small  towns,  and  such  cities  as  Valparaiso,  143,- 
000  population;  Concepcion,  50,000;  Iquique,  43,000; 
Talca,  43,331;  Chilian,  36,681;  Antofagasta,   16,253. 

Colombia,  which  once  included  what  is  now  Venez- 
uela and  Ecuador,  gained  independence  from  Spain 
in  1819;  split  up  into  Venezuela,  Ecuador,  and  Repub- 
lic of  New  Granada,  in  1832;  in  1858  New  Granada 


28  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

changed  into  Confederation  Granadina;  in  1861  name 
changed  to  United  States  of  New  Granada,  which 
was  changed  to  United  States  of  Colombia  in  1863. 
A  revolution  in  1885  brought  about  a  new  constitution, 
by  which  the  sovereign  states  became  simple  depart- 
ments, with  governors  appointed  by  the  president  of 
the  republic.  Revolutions  have  been  almost  continu- 
ous, and  this,  with  lack  of  communication,  has  kept 
Colombia  backward.  The  area  of  the  republic  is  esti- 
mated from  445,000  to  505,000  square  miles — this  on 
account  of  disputed  boundaries.  The  population  is 
4,279,674,  including  150,000  uncivilized  Indians. 
Colombia  has  a  fine  capital — Bogota — situated  in  the 
interior,  9,000  feet  above  sea  level;  population  120,- 
000.  The  chief  commercial  towns  are  Baranquilla, 
on  the  Magdalena  River,  and  its  seaport,  Savanilla, 
Santa  Marta,  and  Cartagena,  on  the  Caribbean; 
Buenventura,  on  the  Pacific,  and  IVDedillin,  an  interior 
mining  town.  The  Magdalena  is  navigable  for  900 
miles,  steamers  now  ascending  to  La  Dorada,  600  miles 
from  the  coast. 

Ecuador,  separated  from  Colombia  in  1830,  has 
been  disturbed  more  or  less  continually  ever  since  by 
revolution.  Its  area  is  about  120,000  square  miles,  or 
about  the  size  of  Norway.  The  population  numbers 
1,400,000,  the  bulk  of  which  is  Indian  and  mixed 
blood.  The  capital,  Quito,  has  80,000  population.  The 
principal  seaport  and  commercial  center  is  Guayquil, 
with  about  70,000  inhabitants. 

Peru,  formerly  the  most  important  of  the  Spanish 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA      29 

vice-royalties,  declared  independence  in  1821,  and 
gained  freedom  in  1824.  Since  then  the  country  has 
suffered  from  various  revolutions  and  its  power  was 
temporarily  crushed  in  the  war  with  Chile  (1879- 
1884),  by  which  it  lost  the  valuable  nitrate  provinces. 
Its  area  is  about  696,000  square  miles,  or  about  three 
and  one-half  times  that  of  France.  It  has  a  population 
of  about  3,500,000,  of  whom  more  than  half  are  In- 
dian. The  capital  is  Lima,  with  135,000  inhabitants. 
Other  important  cities  are  Callao,  the  seaport  of  Lima, 
Arequipa,  Cuzco,  and  Iquitos;  the  latter  is  near  the 
eastern  border  and  extensive  trade  passes  through  it 
on  its  way  to  the  Amazon. 

Paraguay  was  originally  a  part  of  the  viceroyalty 
of  Peru,  later  placed  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Buenos 
Aires.  It  declared  its  independence  of  Spain  in  1811. 
After  a  short  government  by  two  consuls,  the  supreme 
power  was  seized  by  various  dictators,  and  so  held 
until  the  great  war  between  Lopez  and  the  combined 
forces  of  Brazil,  Argentina,  and  Uruguay,  1865-1870. 
Lopez  was  defeated  and  killed  at  Aquidaban,  March  1, 
1870.  The  country  was  completely  exhausted,  and  it 
is  only  within  the  past  few  years  that  it  has  com- 
menced to  recover.  The  area  of  Paraguay  is  98,000 
square  miles.  The  population  of  about  650,000  in- 
cludes 15,000  Indians.  The  capital,  Asuncion,  has 
about  62,000  people.  Other  towns  are  Villa  Rica, 
25,000;  Concepcion,   15,000;  Carapegua,   13,000. 

Venezuela,  which  was  discovered  by  Columbus  on 
his  third  voyage,  in  1498,  is  one  of  the  most  inter- 


30  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

esting  of  the  Republics.  It  was  here  that  the  revolu- 
tionary movement  began  that  freed  the  whole  of  the 
northern  part  of  South  America  from  Spain.  The 
Republic  itself  was  organized  in  1830  by  a  secession 
from  Colombia,  and  since  then  it  has  had  no  fewer 
than  fifty-one  revolutionary  movements.  Its  area  is 
about  364,000  square  miles,  with  a  population  of 
2,602,492.  Caracas,  the  capital,  has  about  75,000  peo- 
ple, and  among  other  cities  are  Valencia,  38,654 ;  Mara- 
caibo,  34,284;  Barquisimeto,  31,476;  Barcelona,  12,735  ; 
Ciudad  Bolivar,  11,686.  The  area  of  Venezuela  equals 
more  than  the  combined  area  of  Texas,  Kentucky, 
Tennessee,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Okla- 
homa, and  Arkansas. 

With  this  general  outline  of  the  geography,  political 
and  physical,  of  South  America,  we  are  well  prepared 
to  take  up  a  chapter  on  the  history  of  the  country ;  a 
knowledge  of  both  its  geography  and  history  are  nec- 
essary to  an  adequate  understanding  of  the  life  of  its 
people.^ 


CHAPTER  III 


FRAGMENTS  OF   HISTORY 


THE  very  beginnings  of  the  history  of  the  south- 
ern continent  of  America  are  shrouded  in  mys- 
tery. Tradition,  however,  has  been  strong  enough  to 
furnish  a  basis  for  the  wonderful  story  given  us  by 
Prescott  in  his  Conquest  of  Peru  that  reads  Hke  a 
fairy  tale,  but  in  which  it  is  a  little  difficult  to  draw 
the  line  between  real  facts  and  the  glowing  and  fertile 
imagination  of  the  brilliant  historian.  Certain  it  is 
that  a  great  civilization  existed  there  centuries  before 
the  discovery  of  the  Americas  by  Columbus  con- 
cerning which  we  have  but  meager  information.  In 
short,  the  origin  and  character  of  the  earliest  South 
American  civilization  are  completely  hidden  from 
view.  The  most  ancient  traces  of  man  on  the  conti- 
nent are  the  ''kitchen-midden"  found  on  the  coast  of 
Peru,  consisting  of  shells  and  refuse,  mixed  with 
fragments  of  earthen  pots  and  ashes  and  occasionally 
the  rude  implements  used  by  these  primitive  people. 
After  these  men  who  lived  on  sea-food,  there  came 
more  advanced  tribes  of  whom  we  know  nothing  ex- 
cept what  may  be  inferred  from  their  pottery  and 
textures  found  in  the  deepest  layers  of  soil.  This 
development,  such  as  it  was,  was  confined  to  the  sea 
coast.     It  was  followed  by  a  wonderful  civilization 

31 


32  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

on  the  higli  tablelands.  Where  this  civilization  came 
from  is  a  mystery.  We  know  nothing  of  how  long  it 
lasted  or  what  its  nature  was  except  as  its  architectural 
ruins  show  that  it  had  oriental  kinships  and  that  it  was 
as  interesting  as  it  was  powerful.  These  ruins  can  be 
seen  today  at  Tiahuanaco,  in  Bolivia,  just  south  of 
Lake  Titicaca.  Immense  stone  pillars  and  gateways, 
which  must  have  been  brought  from  great  distances, 
prove  that  a  people  lived  on  these  tablelands  in  cen- 
turies which  we  can  not  fix  now,  akin  to  the  race 
which  left  its  massive  monuments  in  Central  America 
and  Mexico,  and  capable  of  as  great  achievements  as 
the  ancient  Egyptians.  Of  their  ideas  and  language 
we  know  nothing ;  but  it  is  evident  that  their  influence 
extended  from  Colombia  on  the  north  to  Chile  on  the 
south,  and  as  far  as  Tucuman  and  the  Gran  Chaco  in 
what  is  now  Argentina. 

This  ancient  pre-Inca  civilization  disappeared  cen- 
turies before  the  discovery  of  America.  Its  remains, 
however,  were  scattered  over  the  whole  Andean  pla- 
teau, and  on  this  base  of  an  ancient  culture  it  was  easy 
for  the  Incas  to  build  their  empire.  The  Incas  had  no 
written  language  or  literature,  and  while,  according 
to  Garland,  in  his  Peru  in  ipo6,  ''there  exist  ancient 
chronicles  written  by  some  of  the  conquerors  and 
missionaries,  .  .  .  it  is  impossible  to  place  absolute 
confidence  in  these  narratives."  So  that  the  real  char- 
acter of  the  empire  of  the  Incas  and  the  conditions  of 
the  South  American  people  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish 
conquest  are  but  uncertainly  known  to  us.     It  seems 


FRAGMENTS  OF  HISTORY  33 

clear,  however,  that  there  was  a  widespread  social- 
istic, theocratic  civilization  organized  and  adminis- 
tered by  the  Incas,  reaching  from  Colombia  to  central 
Chile  and  Argentina.  Wonderful  schemes  of  irriga- 
tion and,  it  is  said,  not  less  wonderful  systems  of 
roads  were  constructed.  This  matter  of  the  wonderful 
roads,  it  is  now  believed  by  experts  who  have  been 
over  the  ground,  were  mere  Indian  trails.  Armies 
were  organized  which  brought  the  whole  Andean 
plateau  under  the  Inca  sovereigns,  who  appear  to  have 
possessed  from  the  eleventh  century,  when  tradition 
says  they  first  came  upon  the  scene,  a  sacred,  semi- 
divine  character.  The  Inca  empire  had  reached  its 
greatest  prosperity  in  the  generation  before  the  Span- 
iards came,  and  the  disruption  of  that  prosperity  by 
civil  war  was  one  of  the  conditions  which  played  into 
Pizarro's  hands  when,  with  a  handful  of  audacious 
desperadoes  like  himself,  he  came  for  glory  and  gold. 
Apart  from  the  Incas,  the  only  other  great  people 
in  South  America,  whom  we  can  identify,  were  the 
Caras  of  Ecuador.  Tradition  says  that  they  came 
from  the  south  in  the  seventh  century  and  invaded  the 
seaboard  of  central  Ecuador,  and  by  the  thirteenth 
century  the  outlines  of  their  empire  which  was  ruled 
by  male  succession,  appear.  The  Cara  kingdom 
reached  its  zenith  at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, after  which  it  was  overthrown  and  absorbed  by 
the  Incas.  The  Caras  were  a  vigorous  stock,  how- 
ever, and  survived  the  Inca  conquest  and  also  outlived 
the    decimating   tyranny    of    the    Spaniards,    so   that 


34  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

ninety-five  per  cent  of  the  present  population  of  Ecua- 
dor is  composed  of  their  descendants. 

The  Incas  and  the  Caras  are  the  only  South  Amer- 
ican races  which  attained  any  sort  of  organized  and 
advanced  civilization,  and  even  that  civilization  was 
weak  and  inarticulate.  History  has  shown  us  in  their 
fate  the  frailty  of  a  socialistic  order.  Under  the  In- 
cas the  state  controlled  everything — agriculture,  com- 
merce, marriage,  work  and  play.  The  result  was  that 
when  the  central  government  fell,  the  whole  civiliza- 
tion collapsed.  We  read  that  there  were  thousands  of 
functionaries  who  spent  their  lives  in  superintending 
the  furniture,  the  dress,  the  work,  the  very  cookery, 
of  the  families  under  their  charge,  and  inflicting  cor- 
poral chastisement  on  those  whom  they  surprised  in 
a  fault.  These  methods  formed  a  correct  and  regular 
society,  drilled  like  bees  in  a  hive,  it  formed  a  nation 
of  submissive  slaves,  but  it  could  not  nor  did  not  make 
a  nation  of  men.  And  this  is  why  a  handful  of  un- 
scrupulous Spaniards  overthrew  what  is  reported  to 
have  been  a  great  and  powerful  people.  They  were 
great  in  numbers  and  in  long-standing  institutions, 
but  they  were  weak  in  character  and  could  not  stand 
the  test.  Reville  has  called  it  a  "skilfully  constructed 
machine,  which  worked  like  a  chronometer;  but  when 
once  the  marinspring  was  broken,  all  was  over." 

Beyond  the  empires  of  the  Incas  and  the  Caras 
the  native  peoples  were  Indians  with  a  primitive  social 
and  political  order,  not  very  different  probably  from 
the  Indians  of  the  present  time.     The  strongest  and 


FRAGMENTS  OF  HISTORY  35 

most  virile  race  among  them  were  the  Araucanians 
of  Chile,  who  showed  themselves  well  nigh  inconquer- 
able  and  whose  sturdy,  truculent  qualities  characterize 
the  Chilean  people  today.  In  Brazil,  covering  one- 
half  of  the  continent,  and  with  an  Indian  population 
whose  size  is  absolutely  unknown  to  us,  there  was  only 
a  stagnant  and  rudimentary  civilization,  and  the  Bra- 
zilian Indians  melted  away  before  the  white  man's 
coming  even  more  pitifully  than  did  the  Indians  of  the 
Andean  plateau. 

The  savage  Indians  of  South  America,  whom  the 
discoverers  found,  were  tame  and  feeble  in  compari- 
son with  the  Indians  of  North  America,  and  while 
the  civilization  of  the  Incas  surpassed  that  of  the 
Aztecs  in  Mexico,  their  resisting  power  was  as  noth- 
ing in  comparison  with  the  energy  and  fierceness  of 
the  Aztec  race.  The  differences  between  North  and 
South  America  today  are  not  more  the  transported 
differences  between  the  Latin  and  the  Germanic  peo- 
ples than  the  continuance  of  the  ancient  and  primitive 
dissimilarities.  The  racial  basis  of  the  South  Ameri- 
can people  is  not  Spanish  nor  Portuguese,  but  it  is 
Indian.  The  native  stock  was  not  wiped  out  by  the 
Conquistadores.  They  were  decimated  by  disease  and 
misuse,  but  at  the  same  time  they  were  made  the  stock 
upon  which  the  Latin  blood  from  Europe  was  grafted. 
To  this  day  no  small  part  of  the  diversities  of  char- 
acter among  the  South  American  republics  is  due  to 
the  differences  in  the  Indian  racial  stocks — Quichua, 
Aymara,    Araucanian,    Guarany;    and    in    the    Latin 


36  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

racial  grafts — Galician,  Basques,  Catalonian,  Anda- 
lusian,  Portuguese. 

Brazil  was  one  of  the  first  parts  of  South  America 
to  be  discovered,  and  the  men  who  really  found  it  were 
not  Spaniards,  but  Portuguese,  though  Pinzon,  a 
Spaniard  from  Palos,  and  one  of  the  companions  of 
Columbus,  was  the  first  European  to  see  the  new 
continent.  Before  Pinzon  reached  the  limit  of  his 
journey,  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon,  Portugal  had 
despatched  Pedro  Alvarez  Cabral,  who,  in  April,  1500, 
sighted  what  is  now  the  state  of  Bahia.  Cabral  was 
followed  by  Amerigo  Vespucci,  whose  name  was' given 
to  the  new  world,  and  who  gave  the  name  of  Brazil  to 
the  shores  on  which  he  landed  on  account  of  the  Brazil 
wood  he  found  there  in  quantities,  and  which  was 
highly  prized  in  Europe  on  account  of  its  bright  red 
and  dyeing  properties — Brazil  meaning  "the  color  of 
fire." 

It  was  Columbus  himself  who  began  the  Spanish 
exploration  of  South  America.  On  his  third  voyage 
he  sighted  the  Venezuelan  coast  on  Aug.  1,  1498. 
The  country  was  then  inhabited  by  numerous  Indian 
tribes  who  were  not  of  a  peaceful  character,  and 
who  bitterly  fought  against  the  cruelties  and  en- 
slavements of  the  Spaniards.  Not  until  1545  were 
permanent  settlements  effected  in  the  interior.  On 
his  fourth  and  last  voyage  in  1502  Columbus  sailed 
along  the  Colombian  shore,  but  no  attempt  to  conquer 
the  country  was  made  until  1508,  when  Ojeda  effected 
a  settlement  on  the  coast.     In  1536,  Quesada  under- 


FRAGMENTS  OF  HISTORY  37 

took  the  subjugation  of  the  Chibchas,  a  civilized  peo- 
ple similar  to  the  Incas  on  the  high  plateau,  and  estab- 
lished his  capital,  the  present  city  of  Bogota,  near  the 
site  of  the  Chibcha  capital.  In  1570,  Diego  da 
Nicuera  effected  a  settlement  which  extended  from 
the  Gulf  of  Darien  to  Cape  Gracias  a  Dios.  In  1513 
Balboa  crossed  the  Isthmus  and  discovered  the  Pacific 
Ocean. 

It  was  Pizarro  who  finally  opened  the  wealth  of 
Peru  to  the  world  and  established  Spanish  dominion 
on  the  whole  of  the  Andean  plateau.  In  1532,  after 
several  experimental  expeditions  with  a  little  company 
of  one  hundred  and  two  foot  soldiers  and  seventy- 
two  horses,  the  daring  adventurer  seized  the  Inca 
emperor  at  Cajamarca,  overpowered  his  futile  sol- 
diery and  took  possession  of  Peru,  gathering  in  as  the 
first  booty  gold  worth  more  than  $20,000,000.  Pizarro 
wasted  no  time  and  stood  on  no  scruples.  The  Inca 
emperor  he  slew,  the  wealth  he  confiscated,  and  within 
half  a  dozen  years  the  whole  of  the  vast  region  ruled 
by  the  Inca  power  was  overrun  and  subdued.  Pizar- 
ro's  lieutenant,  Benalcazar,  conquered  the  northern 
region  of  Ecuador  and  entered  Quito  on  Dec.  6, 
1534.  Pizarro's  brother,  Gonzalo,  was  appointed  gov- 
ernor of  the  province  of  Quito,  and  here,  as  else- 
where, the  Spaniards  apportioned  the  land  and  people 
among  themselves  and  established  feudal  estates  on 
which  they  lived  upon  the  labor  of  the  natives.  To 
the  south  of  Peru,  Pizarro's  triumph  was  even  easier, 
and  his  brother  Hernando  was  given  charge  of  Bo- 


38  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

livia.  Almagro,  another  one  of  Pizarro's  lieutenants, 
was  sent  further  south  to  Chile,  but  here  he  encoun- 
tered a  vigorous,  hardy  people,  not  debilitated  by  the 
weakening  socialism  of  the  Incas.  Individual  owner- 
ship of  property,  rough  struggle  with  nature  and  men, 
had  made  the  Chilean  tribes  strong  and  virile,  and 
although  Almagro  was  victorious  in  his  battle,  he  soon 
.turned  back  from  such  an  inhospitable  and  godless 
land.  Returning  to  dispute  with  Pizarro  his  posses- 
sion of  the  wealth  of  Peru,  Almagro  fell  at  Pizarro's 
hands,  and  the  conquest  of  Chile  was  accomplished 
in  1540-45  by  another  lieutenant,  Pedro  Valdiva,  who, 
after  heroic  marches  and  campaigns,  subdued  the  land 
and  set  up  the  landed  aristocracy  which  rules  the 
country  to  this  day.  In  the  thirty  years  following 
Valdiva's  invasion,  settlers  from  Chile  and  Bolivia 
passed  over  the  Andes  and  established  Santiago  de 
Estero,  Mendoza,  and  Cordoba  in  western  Argentina. 
Pedro  de  Mendoza  founded  Buenos  Aires  in  1536, 
although  it  was  not  till  thirty  years  later  that  the  set- 
tlement was  securely  established.  The  natural  ap- 
proach from  Europe  to  the  valley  of  the  Rio  de  la 
Plata  and  its  tributaries  was,  of  course,  direct  by  sea, 
and  Juan  de  Solis,  coming  by  water,  is  credited  with 
having  discovered  the  great  river  in  1515.  The  ex- 
plorer lost  his  life  at  the  hands  of  the  Uruguayan 
Indians,  and  it  is  an  odd  fact  that  Paraguay,  far 
inland,  was  an  earlier  settlement  than  Uruguay  on  the 
sea.  A  settlement  was  made  on  the  site  of  Asuncion, 
the  present  Paraguayan  capital,  in  1536,  while  the  first 


FRAGMENTS  OF  HISTORY  39 

permanent  establishments  in  Uruguay  were  not  set 
up  until  the  Jesuits  came  in  1624. 

The  rapidity  with  which  the  Spanish  explorers 
overran  the  western  and  southern  sections  of  the 
continent  is  extraordinary.  In  fifty  years  they  had 
laid  the  foundations  of  practically  all  the  Spanish 
states  which  are  now  organized  as  nine  independent 
republics.  One  reason  for  the  rapidity  of  the  con- 
quest was  the  fact  that  the  Spaniards  had  not  come 
as  agricultural  settlers,  but  as  adventurers  for  gold. 
They  were  looking  for  quick  and  easy  wealth.  They 
did  no  more  work  themselves  than  was  avoidable. 
They  were  equal  to  any  heroism,  but  to  no  industry. 
The  Indian  population  were  impressed  to  support  and 
enrich  them.  The  newcomers  passed  on  to  their  chil- 
dren no  inheritance  of  industrious  conflict  with  com- 
mon conditions,  no  disposition  to  seek  wealth  in  the 
orderly  development  of  common  resources,  no  agri- 
cultural knowledge,  but  only  the  dominant  ideas  of 
quick  action  or  feudal  ease. 

One  of  the  tragedies  of  the  conquest  was  the 
dramatic  death  of  Pizarro  at  the  hands  of  the  friends 
of  Almagro,  the  general,  whom  Pizarro,  as  governor 
of  Peru,  caused  to  be  put  to  death.  Almagro's 
friends  quickly  carried  the  news  of  his  illegal  execu- 
tion to  Spain,  crying  for  justice  against  the  Pizarros. 
The  Spanish  government  was  not  unwilling  to  secure 
a  selfish  advantage  from  the  disputes  among  the  orig- 
inal conquerors,  and  sent  out  Vaca  de  Castro  to  inves- 
tigate and  report. 


40  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

When  the  royal  commissioners  arrived  at  Panama 
early  in  1541,  the  latest  news  from  Peru  was  tran- 
quilizing.  Pizarro  was  busily  engaged  in  enlarging 
and  beautifying  Lima,  in  regulating  the  revenue  and 
the  administration,  in  distributing  encomiendas,  and 
in  restraining  the  rapacity  of  his  Spaniards.  How- 
ever, Lima  was  full  of  the  "men  of  Chile,"  as  Alma- 
gro's  adherents  were  called — all  bitter  enemies  of  the 
governor.  They  passed  him  in  the  street  without 
saluting,  and  their  attitude  was  so  menacing  that 
Pizarro  received  repeated  warnings  and  was  urged  to 
banish  them.  Absolutely  incapable  of  personal  fear, 
magnanimous  when  his  passion  had  not  been  aroused, 
he  only  replied,  *Toor  fellows;  they  have  had  trouble 
enough.  We  will  not  molest  them."  He  even  sent 
for  Juan  de  la  Rada,  the  guide,  counsellor,  and  guar- 
dian of  the  young  half-breed  who  was  Almagro's 
heir,  and  condescended  to  try  to  argue  him  into  a  bet- 
ter frame  of  mind,  saying  at  parting,  **Ask  me  frankly 
what  you  desire."  But  the  iron  had  entered  too  deeply 
into  Rada's  soul ;  he  had  already  organized  a  conspir- 
acy to  assassinate  Pizarro. 

At  noon  on  Sunday,  the  26th  of  June,  1541,  Pizarro 
was  sitting  at  dinner  in  his  house  with  twenty  gen- 
flemen,  among  them  his  half-brother  Francisco  Alcan- 
tara, and  several  of  the  most  illustrious  knights  who 
had  taken  part  in  the  conquest.  The  great  door  into 
the  public  square  was  lying  wide  open.  The  conspira- 
tors, to  the  number  of  a  score,  had  assembled  in 
a    house    opposite.      All    of    a    sudden    they    rushed 


FRAGMENTS  OF  HISTORY  41 

into  the  square  fully  armed  and  carrying  their 
swords  naked  in  their  hands.  A  young  page  standing 
in  front  of  the  governor's  house  saw  them  and  ran 
back  shouting:  *To  arms!  all  the  men  of  Chile  are 
coming  to  kill  the  Marquis,  our  lord."  The  guests 
rose  in  alarm  from  the  table  and  all  but  half  a  dozen 
fled  to  the  windows  and  dropped  into  the  garden. 
Pizarro  threw  off  his  gown  and  snatched  up  a  sword, 
while  the  valiant  Francisco  Chaves  stepped  forward 
through  the  anteroom  to  dispute  the  passage  to  the 
staircase.  The  ferocious  crowd  of  murderers  rushed 
up  and  laid  him  dead  on  the  stairs.  Alcantara  checked 
them  for  a  few  moments  with  his  single  sword,  but 
was  soon  forced  back  into  the  dining-room  and  fell 
pierced  with  many  thrusts.  The  old  lion  shouted  from 
inside,  "What  shameful  thing  is  this!  Why  do  you 
wish  to  kill  me?'*  and  with  cloak  wrapped  round  one 
arm  and  his  sword  grasped  in  the  other  hand,  he 
rushed  forward  to  meet  his  assassins  and  strike  a 
blow  to  avenge  his  brother  before  he  himself  should 
fall.  Only  two  faithful  young  pages  remained  at  his 
side.  Though  over  seventy  years  of  age,  his  practiced 
sword  laid  two  of  the  crowd  dead  before  he  was  sur- 
rounded. The  two  boys  were  butchered  and  in  the 
melee  Pizarro  received  a  mortal  wound  in  the  throat, 
and  falling  to  the  floor,  made  the  sign  of  the  cross 
on  the  boards  and  kissed  it.  One  of  the  ruflians  had 
snatched  up  an  earthern  water  jar  and  with  this 
pounded  out  the  old  man's  brains  as  he  lay  prostrate, 
disdaining  to  ask  for  mercy  and  murmuring  "Jesus." 


42  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

The  news  of  the  murder  threw  Peru  into  confu- 
sion. In  Lima  the  governor's  friends  hid  themselves 
or  fled ;  a  hundred  sympathizers  joined  the  assassins ; 
the  rudders  and  sails  of  the  ships  in  port  were  taken 
away  so  that  no  word  could  be  sent  to  Panama;  and 
all  the  treasure  in  the  city  was  plundered.  Young 
Almagro  assumed  the  title  of  governor  of  Peru,  but 
he  and  Rada  soon  realized  that  the  vast  majority  at 
Lima  regarded  them  with  execration,  while  threaten- 
ing messages  came  from  the  commanders  in  other 
towns.  Rada  and  the  boy  usurper  started  up  the 
road  for  Jauja  and  Cuzco.  At  the  former  place  Rada 
died,  but  his  protege,  though  only  twenty-two  years 
old,  now  showed  unexpected  ability  and  resource. 
Suppressing  with  bloody  severity  a  quarrel  among  his 
captains,  he  took  the  road  to  Cuzco,  where  his  father's 
party  was  strongest. 

In  the  meantime  the  royal  commissioner,  now  be- 
come legal  governor  of  Peru,  had  sailed  from  Panama. 
Shipwrecked  off  the  coast  of  southern  Colombia,  he 
resolved  to  proceed  by  land,  and  disembarking  at 
Buenventura,  made  his  way  with  infinite  difficulty 
through  the  tangled  forests  and  steep  defiles  of  the 
Maritime  Cordillera  to  the  valley  of  the  Cauca  River. 
Thence  to  Quito  over  the  highlands  of  Popayan  and 
Pasto  was  easier.  As  soon  as  the  news  of  Pizarro^s 
murder  reached  him,  he  hastened  south,  receiving 
many  offers  of  help  from  the  friends  of  the  dead 
governor.  At  Jauja  he  found  a  considerable  army 
ready   to   his   orders,   so   he   proceeded   promptly   to 


FRAGMENTS  OF  HISTORY  43 

Guamanga,  to  which  point  Almagro  was  advancing 
from  Cuzco.  The  soldiers  of  the  young  half-breed 
knew  that  they  were  fighting  with  halters  round  their 
necks,  and  the  battle  was  the  bloodiest  since  the  Span- 
iards had  landed  in  Peru.  Of  the  twelve  hundred  white 
men  who  went  into  the  fight  only  five  hundred  escaped 
unwounded.  The  rebels  were  practically  annihilated. 
Two  days  after  the  battle  Pizarro's  murderers  were 
executed  in  the  great  square  at  Guamanga.  Young 
Almagro  managed  to  escape  to  Cuzco,  but  he  was 
quickly  captured  and  relentlessly  put  to  death. 

Upon  the  death  of  Francisco  Pizarro  the  right  to 
nominate  a  governor  reverted  to  the  Spanish  Crown. 
Though  some  disappointment  was  felt  that  Gonzalo 
Pizarro  had  not  been  appointed,  Vaca  de  Castro  suc- 
ceeded without  opposition.  Gonzalo's  selection  would 
not  have  suited  the  new  policy  of  the  Spanish  govern- 
ment. Las  Casas  had  written  his  famous  book  expos- 
ing the  unspeakable  iniquities  of  the  earlier  conquer- 
ors toward  the  West  Indian  natives.  It  produced  a 
tremendous  effect  on  public  opinion,  and  the  authori- 
ties at  Madrid  decided  to  root  up  Indian  slavery,  and 
gradually  abolish  the  existing  encomiendas.  Mani- 
festly, such  a  step  would  excite  bitter  dissatisfaction 
among  the  adventurers  in  Peru,  and  it  seemed  best  to 
name  a  viceroy,  who  would  be  ipso  facto  vested  with 
absolute  power,  and  not  subject  to  the  influence  of 
the  conquistadores. 

This  dangerous  post  was  entrusted  to  Blasco 
Nunez  de  Vela,  an  old  bureaucrat  of  the  Escurial, 


44  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

whose  integrity,  piety,  and  rigid  obedience  to  orders 
had  pushed  him  into  high  positions.  Arriving  in  Peru 
early  in  1554,  he  was  received  with  outward  courtesy 
and  respect,  thinly  veiling  real  alarm  and  distrust. 
The  *'New  Laws"  abolished  personal  service  by  In- 
dians; the  grandees  of  estates  must  hereafter  be  con- 
tent with  a  moderate  tribute  from  their  tenants;  en- 
comiendas  might  not  be  sold  or  even  descend  by  in- 
heritance; and — worst  of  all — public  officials  and  all 
Spaniards  who  had  taken  part  in  the  wars  between 
Almagro  and  Pizarro  were  to  be  deprived.  The  pro- 
visions were  drastic  and  rumor  exaggerated  them. 
In  his  journeys  down  the  coast  the  viceroy  had  sternly 
ordered  that  no  Indian  be  forced  to  carry  a  burden 
against"  his  will.  To  the  Spaniards  this  seemed  an 
outrageous  violation  of  the  natural  order  of  things. 
The  whole  fabric  of  their  fortunes  rested  upon  forced 
Indian  labor.  Without  it  they  could  not  work  their 
mines,  farm  their  estates,  or  transport  their  goods,  and 
these  "New  Laws"  enforced  by  a  conscientious  and 
stubborn  old  bureaucrat,  would  virtually  rob  them  of 
all  that  their  swords  had  won. 

Dismayed  encomienderos  wrote  to  Gonzalo  Piz- 
arro, urging  him  to  espouse  their  cause;  his  own  vast 
estates  would  infallably  be  wrenched  away  by  the 
viceroy,  and  he  was  told  that  his  head  was  to  be  cut 
off  as  soon  as  Nunez  Vela  could  lay  hands  on  him. 
With  the  Pizarro  instinct  of  running  to  meet  a  danger, 
he  hastened  from  southern  Bolivia  to  Cuzco,  where  he 
was  proclaimed  "procurator  general"  of   Peru;  sol- 


FRAGMENTS  OF  HISTORY  45 

diers  flocked  to  his  camp;  he  seized  the  artillery  and 
stores  at  Cuzco,  and  soon  was  at  the  head  of  four 
hundred  desperate  men,  well  armed  and  provided. 
Many,  however,  shrank  from  open  rebellion  against 
the  representative  of  the  Castilian  king,  and  the 
Pizarros  had  enemies.  The  result  was  still  doubtful, 
when  the  viceroy  himself  turned  the  scale  by  his  own 
violent  measures.  He  imprisoned  Vaca  de  Castro  on 
suspicion  of  favoring  the  revolt;  quarreled  with  the 
judges  of  the  royal  court ;  and  finally  in  an  altercation 
with  the  popular  factor  of  Lima,  stabbed  his  opponent 
with  his  own  hand,  and  then  attempted  to  conceal  the 
murder.  Frightened  at  the  burst  of  public  indigna- 
tion, he  fled  to  Trujillo,  while  the  royal  judges  took 
the  direction  of  affairs  into  their  own  hands.  They 
ordered  the  arrest  and  deportation  of  the  viceroy,  and 
sent  a  conciliatory  message  to  Gonzalo.  But  he  knew 
better  than  to  rely  on  the  unauthorized  promises  of  the 
judges.  His  answer  was  to  send  a  detachment  to 
Lima,  which  seized  three  deserters  and  hanged  them 
on  trees  outside  the  town.  The  judges  having  no 
troops  upon  whom  they  could  rely,  were  forced  to  rec- 
ognize Pizarro  as  governor.  A  few  days  later  he 
made  his  triumphal  entry,  riding  at  the  head  of  twelve 
hundred  men. 

Gonzalo's  administration  lasted  three  years,  and 
they  were  golden  ones  for  the  Spanish  adventurers. 
The  marvelous  silver  mines  of  Potosi  and  the  gold 
washings  of  southern  Ecuador  were  discovered.  En- 
comiendas  were  lavishly  granted;  the  Indians  went 


46  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

back  to  their  fields;  the  mining  industry  began  that 
marvelous  development  which  soon  made  Peru  the 
treasure  box  of  the  world  and  Potosi  a  synonym  for 
limitless  wealth.  But  the  dazzling  sunlight  of  pros- 
perity was  dimmed  by  the  shadow  of  Pizarro's  scaf- 
fold slowly  creeping  across  the  Atlantic  and  down  the 
coast.  His  chief  lieutenants,  knowing  that  they  had 
sinned  past  forgiveness,  urged  him  to  declare  himself 
king  of  Peru,  but  he  was  at  once  too  proud  and  patri- 
otic to  fling  away  his  right  to  die  a  loyal  Spaniard. 
Philip,  the  leaden-eyed,  close-mouthed  despot,  was 
regent  of  Spain.  Bitterly  chagrinned  that  the  stream 
of  Peruvian  gold  had  ceased  to  flow  into  the  royal 
treasury,  his  vindicative  heart  held  no  mercy  for  the 
gallant  soldier  whose  sword  had  helped  win  the 
riches  now  temporarily  diverted.  He  selected  a  man 
after  his  own  heart — Pedro  de  la  Gasca,  an  ugly,  de- 
formed little  priest,  hypocritically  humble,  though 
astute  and  untiring,  whose  success  as  an  inquisitor 
was  a  guaranty  that  he  would  be  as  pitilessly  cruel  as 
even  Philip  could  wish.  Gasca  landed  at  Panama  in 
the  character  of  a  modest  ecclesiastic,  a  humble  man 
of  peace  who  had  been  commissioned  to  investigate 
the  sad  situation  in  Peru  and  re-establish  peace.  He 
said  he  would  recommend  the  repeal  of  the  obnoxious 
ISTew  Laws,  and  had  authority  to  suspend  them.  Gon- 
zalo  refused  to  put  his  head  into  the  noose  and  de- 
manded substantial  assurances.  But  many  Peruvians 
were  more  easily  beguiled,  and  welcomed  the  excuse 
to  renew  their  allegiance  to  lawful  authority.    While 


FRAGMENTS  OF  HISTORY  47 

Gasca  remained  at  Panama,  gathering  troops  from 
the  neighboring  provinces,  Pizarro's  fleet  deserted, 
leaving  the  coast  open  to  attack.  An  advance  guard 
came  sailing  down  the  coast,  sending  letters  ashore  at 
every  port  promising  amnesty  and  rewards.  Deser- 
tions were  so  numerous  that  Gonzalo  was  forced  to 
give  up  the  hope  of  defending  Lima  and  retreated 
toward  Arequipa.  Gasca  ascended  to  Jauja,  while 
Pizarro's  old  enemies  in  the  Titicacan  region  rose, 
gathered  a  thousand  men,  and  sent  word  to  Gasca 
that  they  could  overwhelm  without  help  the  five  hun- 
dred soldiers  who  remained  faithful.  But  a  Pizarro 
never  waited  to  be  attacked.  By  forced  marches  he 
crossed  the  dizzy  pass  where  the  Mollendo  and  Puno 
Railway  now  runs,  and  fell  upon  his  enemies  near  the 
southern  end  of  Lake  Titicaca.  Though  outnumbered 
two  to  one,  the  superior  discipline  of  his  men,  his 
admirable  dispositions,  Carbajal's  skilful  handling  of 
the  artillery,  and  his  own  cool  and  intrepid  leadership 
of  the  cavalry  charges,  gave  him  a  decisive  though 
dearly  bought  victory. 

Meanwhile  Gasca  was  coming  up  the  road  from 
Jauja  to  Cuzco,  his  army  increasing  by  accessions 
from  every  direction  until  it  numbered  over  two  thou- 
sand. The  wisest  of  Gonzalo's  counsellors  advised 
him  to  retire  to  southern  Bolivia  and  make  a  defensive 
campaign  in  that  remote  region,  but  he  preferred  bold 
methods.  For  once,  however,  he  could  not  inspire 
his  men  with  his  own  confidence.  They  followed  with 
heavy  hearts  his  eager  march  against  Gasca's  over- 


48  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

whelming  army.  He  drew  them  up  for  attack  and  the 
battle  was  about  to  begin  when,  to  his  despair,  he  saw 
several  captains  desert  to  the  enemy  and  his  soldiers 
surrendering  without  a  blow.  Knowing  that  all  was 
over,  he  turned  to  Juan  Acosta,  who  rode  at  his  side, 
saying,  "What  shall  we  do,  Brother  Juan?"  ''Sir,  let 
us  charge  them  and  die  like  Romans."  ''Better  to  die 
like  Christians,"  replied  Pizarro,  and  he  rode  across 
the  plain  and  gave  himself  up.  The  exulting  priest 
grossly  insulted  the  fallen  warrior,  and  called  a  court- 
martial  to  condemn  him  and  his  captains  to  immediate 
execution.  Though  only  forty-one  years  old  when  he 
went  to  the  scaffold,  Gonzalo  had  taken  a  leading  part 
in  nearly  every  one  of  the  battles  and  expeditions  of 
Peru. 

The  property  of  Pizarro's  friends  was  confiscated ; 
the  prisons  filled  with  wretched  victims;  many  were 
put  to  death;  many  more  were  mutilated  or  flogged; 
even  the  staunchest  loyalists  were  not  safe.  Gasca 
evaded  and  delayed  as  long  as  possible  the  distribu- 
tion of  land-grants  among  those  who  had  earned  and 
been  promised  such  rewards,  and  when  he  had  to 
announce  the  list  he  sneaked  to  Lima  by  an  unfre- 
quented route  in  cowardly  fear  of  his  miserable  life. 
He  never  dared  to  try  to  put  the  New  Laws  into 
effect,  and  when  a  peremptory  order  came  from 
Spain  that  enforced  Indian  labor  must  cease,  he  kept 
it  secret  until  he  could  resign  the  government  to  the 
royal  judges,  leaving  instructions  that  it  should  be 
published  immediately  he  was  at  sea. 


FRAGMENTS  OF  HISTORY  40 

Peru  was  left  in  confusion.  The  prohibition  of 
Indian  slavery  added  to  the  dissatisfaction  felt  over 
Gasca's  awards.  The  ad  interim  governments  could 
make  little  progress  in  securing  its  enforcement. 
Rebellion  after  rebellion  broke  out,  and  civil  war  con- 
tinued to  desolate  Peru,  with  a  few  intervals  of  quies- 
cence during  which  the  government  allowed  the  pro- 
prietors to  do  as  they  pleased,  until  the  arrival  of  the 
Marquis  of  Canete,  the  "good  viceroy/'  on. the  29th 
of  June,  \SS6.'' 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   WARS   OF   INDEPENDENCE 

THE  Spanish  occupation  of  Peru  was  a  conquest, 
not  a  colonization.  The  narrow  plateau  from 
Colombia  to  Chile  and  the  adjacent  dry  valleys  on  the 
Pacific  and  in  northwestern  Argentina  had  been  found 
fully  populated  by  civilized  races.  The  work  of  sub- 
jugating them  was  practically  accomplished  within 
eight  or  ten  years  after  Pizarro  landed  in  Ecuador, 
and  this  marvelous  result  was  achieved  by  private 
adventurers,  who,  though  they  had  commissions  from 
Madrid,  really  acted  on  their  own  responsibility.  A 
very  few  appreciated  the  advisability  of  well  treating 
the  Indians  and  thereby  preserving  the  effective  in- 
dustrial organization,  but  the  vast  majority  concerned 
themselves  only  with  immediate  profit.  For  eighteen 
years  the  original  conquerors  and  the  adventurers 
who  followed  in  their  track  fought  over  the  spoils. 
When  the  Marquis  of  Canete  was  appointed  viceroy, 
he  found  eight  thousand  Spaniards  in  Peru  alone, 
four  hundred  and  eighty-nine  of  whom  had  grants 
of  land  and  Indians. 

We  can  never  know  the  sufferings  of  the  Indians 
during  the  civil  wars  that  have  been  briefly  men- 
tioned in  the  preceding  chapter.  The  chronicles  tell 
us  minutely  the  stories  of  the  battles,  marches,  sieges, 

50 


THE  WARS  OF  INDEPENDENCE  51 

surprises,  assassinations,  and  deeds  of  military  prow- 
ess, but  little  of  the  destruction  and  abandonment  of 
the  irrigating  canals  and  terraces,  the  ruin  of  the 
magnificent  roads,  the  breaking  up  of  the  ancient 
socialistic  system,  the  impressment  of  natives  into  the 
rebel  bands,  the  death  by  exhaustion  of  thousands 
dragging  artillery  over  the  steep  mountain  paths,  the 
starvation  of  whole  villages  robbed  of  their  crops. 
But  the  sturdy  physique  of  the  Andean  Indians  and 
their  perfect  adaptation  to  the  climatic  conditions 
saved  them  from  extermination.  In  the  midst  of  the 
devil's  dance  of  Spanish  carnage,  the  Inca  officers 
reported  minutely  the  crops  stolen  or  destroyed,  and 
the  deficiencies  were  made  up  as  far  as  possible  from 
the  villages  which  had  escaped  for  the  time  being. 
Naturally  the  Spanish  government  was  anxious  to 
put  an  end  to  such  a  state  of  affairs.  Considerations 
of  self-interest  reinforced  the  eloquent  indignation 
of  Las  Casas,  but  the  New  Laws  could  not  be  put 
into  effect,  notwithstanding  the  sentiment  of  fidelity 
to  the  Castilian  king  and  the  growth  of  considerable 
cities  in  which  Spanish  law  and  customs  were  domi- 
nant. The  enlightened  advisers  of  Charles  V  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  Peru  could  never  become  a  loyal 
and  profitable  appanage  of  the  Crown  until  freedom 
of  action  was  granted  to  its  government.  Don  An- 
dres Hurtado  de  Mendoza,  Marquis  of  Caiiete,  ac- 
cepted the  difficult  post  of  viceroy.  He  was  a  scion 
of  the  noblest  house  of  Spain,  distinguished  alike  in 
arms   and   letters,   capable   and   resolute,   of   mature 


52  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

years  and  wide  experience.  His  salary  was  fixed  at 
the  then  fabulous  sum  of  forty  thousand  ducats  in 
order  to  enable  him  to  maintain  regal  state,  and,  ac- 
companied by  his  vice-queen  and  an  imposing  retinue 
he  assumed  power  with  ceremonial  splendor.  He 
prohibited  further  immigration  from  Spain  and  or- 
dered that  no  Spaniard  in  Peru  should  leave  his  dis- 
trict without  permission.  Though  the  encomienderos 
were  left  in  possession  of  their  estates,  they  were  made 
to  understand  that  they  must  cease  the  more  outrag- 
eous forms  of  oppressing  the  natives.  He  sent  for 
the  more  notorious  disturbers,  and  they  came  joyfully 
expecting  to  receive  more  grants,  but  were  summarily 
disarmed  and  banished.  He  employed  the  more  ad- 
venturous in  expeditions  to  the  interior  and  in  com- 
pleting the  conquest  of  Chile.  All  the  artillery  in  the 
country  was  gathered  together  under  his  eye,  and  the 
corregidors  were  required  to  dismiss  most  of  their 
soldiery.  Finally,  the  viceroy  continued  Pizarro's 
policy  of  founding  cities  into  which  were  gathered 
the  Spaniards  who  remained  scattered  over  the  coun- 
try. He  did  much  to  alleviate  the  lot  of  the  natives, 
though  he  dared  not  venture  on  giving  them  all  the 
rights  guaranteed  by  Spanish  law.  No  efforts  were 
spared  to  Hispaniolise  the  Inca  nobles,  and  native 
chiefs  who  could  prove  their  right  by  descent  were 
formally  allowed  to  exercise  jurisdiction  as  magis- 
trates. Even  the  rightful  emperor,  Sayri  Tupac,  who 
had  maintained  his  independence  in  the  wilds  of  Vil- 
cabamba,  was  induced  to  swear  allegiance  and  accept 


THE  WARS  OF  INDEPENDENCE  53 

a  pension  and  estates  in  the  valley  of  Yucay.  When 
the  Inca  had  attested  the  documents  by  which  he  re- 
nounced his  sovereignty,  he  lifted  up  the  gilded  fringe 
of  the  tablecloth,  saying  "All  this  cloth  and  its  fringe 
were  mine,  and  now  they  give  me  a  thread  of  it  for 
my  sustenance  and  that  of  all  my  house."  Retiring 
to  Yucay,  he  sank  into  a  deep  melancholy  and  died 
within  two  years. 

In  the  meantime  Charles  V  had  been  succeeded  by 
Philip  II.  The  Marquis  of  Canete's  liberal  and  en- 
lightened policy  did  not  wring  money  fast  enough  to 
suit  the  greedy  despot.  He  listened  to  the  slanders 
against  the  "good  viceroy"  brought  home  by  disap- 
pointed Spaniards,  and  Cafiete's  reward  for  five  years 
of  brilliant  service  was  a  recall.  Only  his  death  saved 
him  from  hearing  with  his  own  ears  the  reproaches  of 
his  ungrateful  sovereign. 

After  the  recall  of  Cafiete,  the  most  notable  vice- 
roy was  Toledo,  and  he  was  notable  for  the  very 
opposite  policy  that  he  set  up.  Instead  of  pacification 
and  justice,  his  was  a  reign  of  destruction  and  atroci- 
ties, which  resulted  in  1780  in  the  great  Indian  re- 
bellion under  the  leadership  of  Tupac  Amaru,  the 
lineal  descendant  of  the  last  of  the  reigning  Inca 
emperors.  In  Peru  proper  it  did  not  spread  beyond 
the  southern  frontier  provinces,  and  the  story  of  its 
suppression  belongs  to  the  history  of  Bolivia.  The 
authorities  were  so  alarmed  that  the  reforms,  to  pro- 
cure which  Tupac  had  risked  and  lost  his  life,  were 
shortly  afterward  adopted.    The  vitality  and  fighting 


54  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

qualities  of  the  half-breeds  now  stood  revealed,  and 
the  Creoles,  jealous  of  imported  officials  and  dis- 
satisfied at  their  exclusion  from  places  of  honor  and 
profit,  realized  that  a  weapon  lay  ready  to  their  hand 
when  they   should  determine  upon  revolution. 

General  Theodore  de  Croix,  a  Fleming,  was  en- 
trusted with  the  reorganization  and  reform  made  nec- 
essary by  the  Indian  rebellion.  The  Corregidors, 
petty  tyrants  over  whom  no  effective  control  could  be 
maintained,  were  abolished;  the  country  was  divided 
into  a  few  great  provinces,  each  ruled  by  an  intendente 
to  whom  were  responsible  the  subdelgados  who  had 
charge  of  local  affairs,  and  measures  were  taken  for 
the  enforcement  of  the  laws  intended  to  protect  the 
Indians. 

By  the  year  1790  these  valuable  reforms  had  been 
put  into  effect,  but  they  came  too  late.  Ideas  of  lib- 
erty had  begun  to  infiltrate  into  the  educated  classes, 
and  among  the  Creoles  the  abstract  right  of  Peru  to 
autonomous  government  became  the  subject  of  secret 
though  wide-spread  discussion.  A  succession  of  able 
and  liberal  viceroys,  however,  averted  the  danger  for 
the  time,  and  the  outbreak  of  the  revolution  in  the 
rest  of  South  America  found  Peru  ruled  by  Abascal, 
whose  energy,  foresight,  and  determination  not  only 
prevented  an  insurrection  at  Lima,  but  nearly  saved 
all  South  America  to  Spain. 

The  storm  soon  to  burst  over  South  America  was 
gathering  when  the  Viceroy  Abascal  assumed  the  reins 
of  power  in  1806.    He  made  no  pretensions  to  states- 


THE  WARS  OF  INDEPENDENCE  55 

manship,  but  it  did  not  escape  his  shrewd  soldier's 
eye  and  common  sense  that  French  revolutionary 
ideas  would  soon  make  trouble.  Her  very  existence 
threatened  in  the  titan  conflict  then  devastating  Eu- 
rope, Spain  could  not  be  relied  upon  to  spare  any  of 
her  soldiers  to  guard  her  colonies.  He  must  take  care 
of  himself.  Wasting  no  time  in  seeking  to  propitiate 
the  revolutionary  elements,  he  quietly  set  to  work  to 
organize  and  arm  an  efficient  army  while  vigilantly 
watching  the  course  of  events.  With  the  first  overt 
act  he  pounced  upon  the  plotters.  Two  republican 
visionaries,  named  Ubaldo  and  Aguilar,  were  the  first 
martyrs  for  liberty.  A  few  learned  and  respected  pro- 
fessors in  Lima  dared  to  speculate  on  the  future  of 
America  as  affected  by  recent  events  in  Europe,  but 
the  viceroy  summoned  them  to  his  presence  and  his 
stern  warnings  silenced  them.  Two  young  lawyers 
held  evening  parties  where  politics  were  discussed  by 
the  rising  youth  of  the  capital.  One  of  the  ring- 
leaders was  condemned  to  ten  years'  imprisonment 
and  the  other  sent  to  Spain,  while  several  more  were 
shipped  off  to  southern  Chile.  Although  the  liberals 
continued  to  meet  and  conspire,  and  the  priests  were 
particularly  active,  for  the  present  nothing  definite 
came  of  all  this. 

For  six  years  Abascal  held  things  in  splendid  con- 
trol, and  in  1816  he  thought  that  his  work  was  vir- 
tually completed  and  that  he  had  earned  the  right  to 
retire.  Resistance  was  confined  to  Buenos  Aires, 
to  the  thinly  populated  provinces  of  Tucuman  and 


56  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

Cuyo,  and  to  the  banks  of  the  Orinoco.  The  Argen- 
tine revolutionists  were  fighting  among  themselves, 
and  that  they  must  succumb  before  an  advance  in 
force  from  the  Bolivian  plateau  appeared  certain. 
The  last  act  of  his  administration  was  to  send  out  a 
fleet  that  compelled  four  Argentine  ships  which  Ad- 
miral William  Brown  had  brought  around  the  Horn 
to  withdraw  to  the  Atlantic.  He  was  succeeded  by 
General  Pezuela,  a  strategist  of  no  mean  abilities,  who 
had  borne  a  brilliant  part  in  the  Bolivian  campaigns. 
The  new  viceroy  straightway  set  about  final  prepara- 
tions for  a  decisive  advance  across  the  Pampas  to 
Buenos  Aires,  but  like  a  thunderbolt  from  a  clear  sky 
came  the  news  that  San  Martin  had  made  a  sudden 
descent  on  Chile  and  won  the  battle  of  Chacabuco, 
annihilating  the  Spanish  forces  in  that  country.  Pez- 
uela saw  himself  obliged  to  begin  a  war  to  reduce 
Chile  to  obedience — an  undertaking  sure  to  be  long 
and  arduous;  and  in  the  meantime  Venezuela  had 
risen  in  insurrection  under  Bolivar  and  Paez. 

Having  won  the  Chacabuco  victory,  San  Martin 
did  not  rest  content  until  he  had  created  a  fleet.  It 
consisted  of  only  three  frigates  and  as  many  brigs, 
mounting  about  one  hundred  and  eight  cannon  against 
four  frigates  and  thirteen  smaller  ships,  mounting 
three  hundred  and  thirty  guns  manned  by  the  Span- 
iards. But  San  Martin's  disparity  of  force  was  more 
than  made  up  by  the  superior  skill  and  experience  of 
the  foreign  seamen  he  had  engaged.  His  admiral  was 
Lord  Cochrane,  a   Scotchman  of  noble   family,  but 


THE  WARS  OF  INDEPENDENCE  57 

radical  principles  and  adventurous  disposition.  A 
daring  and  reckless  fighter,  inventive  and  fertile  in 
resources,  he  excelled  in  leading  cutting-out  expedi- 
tions and  surprises. 

San  Martin's  plan  was  to  wait  patiently  until  a 
rising  should  compel  the  Spaniards  to  retire  to  the 
interior,  and  then  to  organize  the  country  and  gather 
an  army  for  the  final  campaign  on  the  plateau.  He 
kept,  therefore,  at  a  safe  distance  from  the  Spaniards ; 
sent  out  detachments  which  scoured  the  country  up  to 
the  walls  of  Lima;  and  entered  into  communication 
with  the  conspirators  in  the  city.  Crowds  of  young 
enthusiasts  hastened  out  to  join  him;  Cochrane  dar- 
ingly cut  out  the  frigate  Esmeralda  under  the  very 
guns  of  Callao  castle ;  an  expedition  sent  to  Tacna, 
on  the  extreme  southern  coast,  was  enthusiastically 
received;  and  numerous  desertions  from  the  Spanish 
army  culminated  in  a  battalion  of  Venezuelans  com- 
ing over  in  a  body. 

Notwithstanding  this  encouragement,  San  Martin 
saw  that  outside  help  was  necessary,  and,  despairing 
of  obtaining  it  from  Chile  or  the  Argentine,  turned 
his  eyes  to  the  north.  Bolivar's  battles  of  Boyaca 
and  Carabobo  had  redeemed  northern  Granada  and 
Venezuela  in  1819  and  1821,  and  he  was  now  advanc- 
ing toward  Quito  to  complete  the  expulsion  of  the 
Spaniards  from  that  viceroyalty.  With  a  force  of 
Colombians,  Sucre  went  to  Guayaquil  by  sea  and 
climbed  the  Ecuador  plateau.  Defeated  and  driven 
back  on  his  first  attempt,  he  was  reinforced  by  a  divi- 


58  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

sion  sent  by  San  Martin,  and  renewed  the  effort  with 
better  success.  Although  BoHvar  had  in  the  meantime 
been  checked  in  his  southward  march  on  Quito  by 
loyaHsts  of  southern  Colombia,  Sucre  alone  destroyed 
the  Spanish  army  which  had  held  Ecuador  for  so 
many  years.  The  battle  of  Pichincha,  fought  in  May, 
1822,  left  Bolivar  and  Sucre  free  to  employ  their 
numerous  and  well-disciplined  troops  in  completing 
the  liberation  of  Bolivia. 

Bolivar  joined  his  victorious  lieutenant  at  Quito, 
incorporated  Ecuador  with  his  new  republic  of  Col- 
ombia, and  proceeded  overland  to  Guayaquil,  where 
San  Martin  lost  no  time  in  going  to  meet  him  for  a 
conference.  The  Argentine  expected  to  find  as  un- 
selfish a  patriot  as  himself,  but  the  "liberator"  was 
not  single-minded.  He  had  formed  plans  for  his 
own  glory  and  aggrandizement  to  the  accomplishment 
of  which  San  Martin  might  be  an  obstacle.  When 
the  latter  broached  the  subject  of  a  joint  campaign 
against  the  Spaniards  in  Peru  and  Bolivia,  Bolivar 
gave  him  no  satisfaction,  and  evaded  the  Argentine's 
noble  offer  to  serve  in  a  subordinate  capacity.  The 
silent  soldier  made  no  protest  and  uttered  no  re- 
proaches. Confiding  not  even  in  his  closest  friends, 
he  calmly  considered  his  plight  on  his  way  back  to 
Lima.  His  situation  in  Peru,  bad  already,  would  be 
made  ten  times  worse  by  Bolivar's  intrigues.  Seeing 
that  he  could  be  of  no  further  service  to  the  cause 
of  South  American  Independence,  he  formally  re- 
signed his  authority  to  a  national  congress,  deliber- 


THE  WARS  OF  INDEPENDENCE  59 

ately  sacrificing  his  own  future  for  the  cause  he  loved, 
but  leaving  behind  him  a  name  untarnished  by  any 
suspicion  of  self-seeking  or  personal  ambition. 

Bolivar  waited  in  vain  for  the  expected  invitation 
to  come  with  his  veterans.  The  leaders  in  Peru  did 
not  propose  to  jeopardize  their  own  supremacy.  They 
thought  they  were  strong  enough  to  whip  the  Span- 
iards by  themselves,  and  made  great  efforts  to  drill 
and  equip  an  efficient  army.  By  the  end  of  the  year 
four  thousand  men  under  the  command  of  Alvarado 
were  sent  to  the  southern  coast  to  make  an  attempt 
to  get  between  the  Spanish  armies.  It  failed  before 
the  astonishing  energy  of  the  Spanish  general  Valdez, 
who  by  forced  marches  reached  the  pass  which  the 
Peruvians  were  trying  to  climb,  and  taking  up  a  strong 
position,  beat  them  back  with  great  slaughter.  Al- 
varado retreated,  but  was  caught  by  Valdez  and  com- 
pletely routed;  hardly  a  third  of  the  army  escaped  to 
the  seashore.  The  news  of  this  defeat  brought  about 
a  change  of  government  at  Lima.  A  revolution, 
headed  by  the  principal  officers,  made  Riva  Aguero, 
the  leader  of  the  Peruvian  liberals,  president,  while 
General  Santa  Cruz,  a  Bolivian,  received  chief  com- 
mand of  the  forces.  Word  was  sent  to  Bolivar  that 
his  offer  of  help  would  be  accepted;  and  another 
Peruvian  army  was  recruited.  Before  the  six  thou- 
sand men  promised  by  Bolivar  had  arrived,  the  Peru- 
vians had  regained  confidence.  With  the  aid  of  a 
London  loan,  the  patriots  got  seven  thousand  soldiers 
ready  for  service,  and  in  May,  1823,  five  thousand 


60  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

men  under  the  command  of  Santa  Cruz  sailed  from 
Callao  for  southern  Peru.  This  time  they  advanced 
so  promptly  that  the  Spanish  generals  could  not  get 
to  the  passes  in  time  to  dispute  the  way.  Santa  Cruz 
entered  La  Paz  and  defeated  the  first  army  which 
came  against  him.  But  the  two  main  Spanish  bodies 
hastened  up  from  Cuzco  and  Charcas,  outmanoeuvered 
Santa  Cruz,  united  their  forces,  and  routed  his  army 
in  a  panic,  not  a  fourth  ever  reaching  the  seaboard. 
Shortly  after  Santa  Cruz's  departure  on  his  ill- 
fated  expedition,  Sucre  arrived  at  Lima  with  the  first 
installment  of  the  promised  Colombian  auxiliaries. 
The  Spanish  general,  Canterac,  had  concentrated  a 
large  army  at  Jauja  and  descended  on  the  capital; 
Lima  was  denuded  of  Peruvian  troops;  the  govern- 
ment helpless  against  the  Spaniards  or  Sucre.  The 
Colombian  was  made  commander-in-chief,  and  retir- 
ing to  the  fortifications  of  Callao  before  Canterac's 
overwhelming  numbers,  procured  Riva  Aguero's  depo- 
sition and  the  nomination  of  one  of  his  own  tools  as 
nominal  president,  while  he  sent  off  an  urgent  message 
to  Bolivar  to  come  in  person.  Canterac,  after  holding 
Lima  for  a  few  weeks,  went  back  to  the  mountains, 
and  Bolivar  himself  landed  at  Callao  on  the  1st.  of 
September,  almost  at  the  very  moment  when  Santa 
Cruz's  army  was  getting  involved  in  that  snarl  out  of 
which  it  never  extricated  itself.  The  news  of  its  de- 
struction left  Bolivar  undisputed  master  of  the  situa- 
tion, and  in  February  the  submissive  rump  of  the 
Peruvian  parliament  conferred  upon  him  an  absolute 


THE  WARS  OF  INDEPENDENCE  61 

dictatorship.  He  now  devoted  all  the  wonderful  en- 
ergy with  which  nature  had  endowed  him  to  prepara- 
tion for  a  campaign  which  he  meant  to  be  final;  and 
united  ten  thousand  men  under  his  command,  two- 
thirds  of  whom  were  Colombian  veterans  and  the  rest 
Peruvians,  Argentines,  and  Chileans  who  fought  for 
the  sheer  love  of  fighting.  His  officers  were  the  pick 
of  South  America,  men  who  had  proven  their  bravery 
and  skill  on  all  the  hundred  battlefields  from  Venez- 
uela to  Chile.  With  such  a  force  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  attack  the  Spaniards,  although  the  latter  were 
nearly  twice  as  numerous. 

Suddenly,  however,  his  plans  were  seriously  dis- 
turbed by  a  revolt  of  the  garrison  in  Callao  castle — 
Argentines  and  Chileans  who  had  not  received  their 
pay.  The  mutineers  hoisted  the  Spanish  flag  and  sent 
word  to  Canterac  that  he  might  come  in  and  take  pos- 
session. This  event  produced  a  great  sensation  at 
Lima.  Many  citizens  who  distrusted  Bolivar  or  were 
fearful  of  the  final  result  vacillated  in  their  allegiance. 
Even  men  who  had  been  prominent  liberals  went  over 
to  the  royalists.  Bolivar  abandoned  the  capital  and 
removed  his  base  of  operations  to  Trujillo,  three  hun- 
dred miles  north.  But  discouragement  gave  place  to 
confident  enthusiasm  v/hen  news  came  that  the  Span- 
ish generals  were  fighting  among  themselves.  Olafieta, 
the  renegade  Argentine,  who  commanded  in  Bolivia, 
had  quarreled  with  the  viceroy  La  Serna,  whom  he 
regarded  as  a  pestilent  liberal  and  an  enemy  of  the 
absolute  pretensions  of  the  Spanish  king.    The  vice- 


62  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

roy  sent  Valdez  against  him,  and  some  hard  fighting 
had  taken  place,  when  this  fratricidal  war  was  inter- 
rupted by  the  news  of  Bolivar's  preparations. 

Though  just  recovering  from  a  dangerous  illness, 
Bolivar  lost  no  time  in  taking  advantage  of  Olaneta's 
revolt.  His  army  numbered  nine  thousand  men;  it 
was  well  supplied  with  cavalry,  and  the  troops  received 
their  liberal  pay  punctually.  The  patriots  advanced 
rapidly  and  unopposed  over  the  Maritime  Cordillera, 
covered  by  a  cloud  of  Peruvian  guerillas,  under  whose 
protection  Sucre  marked  out  the  daily  route  and 
brought  in  provisions.  The  city  of  Pasco,  just  south 
of  that  transverse  range  which  forms  the  northern 
limit  of  the  great  Peruvian  plateau,  was  reached  and 
Bolivar's  army  hastened  south  along  the  western  shore 
of  the  lake  of  Reyes  to  the  marshy  plain  of  Junin  at 
the  southern  end,  where  he  met  Canterac  hurrying  up 
from  Jauja  with  a  slightly  inferior  force. 

When  Bolivar  caught  sight  of  the  royalist  army, 
he  held  his  infantry  back  in  a  defensible  position,  and 
sent  his  cavalry  toward  the  enemy.  Canterac  rashly 
charged  in  person  at  the  head  of  all  his  cavalry,  but 
instead  of  the  easy  victory  he  expected,  his  squadrons 
were  thrown  into  some  disorder  when  they  encoun- 
tered the  patriot  lancers.  The  latter,  however,  were 
compelled  to  retreat,  and  fled  into  a  defile,  followed  by 
the  royalists.  The  royalists  did  not  notice  that  a 
Peruvian  squadron  had  been  drawn  aside,  and  scarcely 
were  they  in  the  defile  than  they  were  charged  from 
the  rear.    The  fugitive  patriots  in  front  rallied,  and 


THE  WARS  OF  INDEPENDENCE  63 

the  disordered  and  huddled  royaHsts,  caught  between 
two  fires,  could  make  no  effective  resistance.  They 
were  quickly  cut  to  pieces  and  driven  from  the  field. 
The  whole  affair  had  not  lasted  three-quarters  of  an 
hour;  the  numbers  engaged  did  not  much  exceed  two 
thousand;  the  royalist  loss  was  only  about  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty,  yet  this  battle  of  Junin  produced  al- 
most decisive  results.  Though  Canterac  was  not  pur- 
sued, he  did  not  stop  in  his  precipitate  flight  until  he 
had  reached  Cuzco,  five  hundred  miles  away,  losing 
two  thousand  men  by  desertion  on  the  road. 

Leaving  Sucre  in  command  of  the  army,  which 
now  threatened  Cuzco  itself,  Bolivar  returned  to  Lima 
to  look  after  his  political  interests,  collect  money,  and 
urge  the  sending  of  reinforcements  from  Colombia. 
La  Serna  called  in  all  his  outlying  divisions,  while 
Sucre  confidently  scattered  his  forces.  He  under- 
estimated the  strength  of  the  royalists,  for  to  his  con- 
sternation La  Serna  suddenly  broke  out  of  Cuzco  at 
the  head  of  ten  thousand  men,  and  before  Sucre 
could  concentrate,  his  opponent  was  threatening  his 
rear  and  manoeuvering  to  cut  him  off  from  his  base. 
Happily  the  royalists  were  compelled  to  march  in  a 
semicircle,  and  Sucre,  by  desperate  exertions,  united 
his  forces  and  cut  along  the  radius,  coming  in  sight 
of  La  Serna  just  as  the  latter  had  succeeded  in  getting 
between  him  and  the  road  to  Jauja.  Sucre's  position 
was  desperate.  The  valleys  to  the  north  were  rising 
in  favor  of  the  royalists ;  a  patriot  column  advancing 
from  that  direction  to  reinforce  him  was  driven  back; 


64        •  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

his  provisions  and  ammunition  were  beginning  to  fail. 
Sucre's  army  was  La  Serna's  real  objective.  Even 
if  he  could  shake  off  the  pursuit,  another  march  to 
Lima  would  be  as  barren  of  results  as  Canterac's  last 
descent,  and  to  leave  the  Colombian  army  at  Gua- 
manga  would  expose  Cuzco  and  Bolivia  to  invasion. 
During  three  days  the  opposing  armies  marched  and 
countermarched  among  the  ravines  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  Pampas  River,  and  finally  Sucre  took  the 
desperate  resolution  of  crossing  the  deep  gorge  in 
which  the  river  runs  in  order  to  reach  the  high 
grounds  on  the  other  side.  He  managed  to  get  his 
main  body  over  safely,  but  the  Spaniards  fell  upon  his 
rear  guard,  killing  four  hundred  men  and  capturing 
one  of  his  two  cannon.  The  two  armies  were  now 
opposite  each  other  on  the  high,  narrow  and  broken 
plateau  which  lies  between  the  Eastern  and  Central 
Cordilleras,  separated  only  by  the  gorge  of  the  Pam- 
pas. They  marched  in  plain  sight  of  each  other,  the 
royalists  along  the  slopes  of  the  Central  Cordillera, 
while  the  patriots  skirted  the  foothills  of  the  Eastern. 
Sucre  hoped  to  outrun  the  enemy  and  reach  the  main 
road  to  Jauja,  but  La  Serna  again  outflanked  him; 
he  offered  battle,  but  the  viceroy  had  determined  to 
engage  under  conditions  where  not  a  patriot  could 
escape,  and  by  skilful  manoeuvres  the  royal  army  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  into  the  protection  of  the  eastern 
range  at  a  point  north  of  Sucre.  Iri-etrievably  cut 
off  from  the  Jauja  road,  convinced  by  his  previous 
failures  that  he  could  not  better  his  position  by  any 


THE  WARS  OF  INDEPENDENCE  65 

further  manoeuvres,  the  Columbian  general  resolved 
again  to  offer  battle,  although  this  time  upon  a- field 
chosen  by  La  Serna.  He  ceased  marching  and  allowed 
the  enemy  to  dispose  their  forces  at  will. 

On  the  8th  of  September,  1824,  La  Serna's  army, 
numbering  eight  thousand  five  hundred  men  —  of 
whom  only  five  hundred  were  Spaniards — encamped 
on  the  high  grounds  overlooking  the  little  plain  of 
Ayacucho,  which  sloped  gently  eastward  to  the  little 
village  of  Quinua.  To  the  left  the  level  ground  was 
bounded  by  a  deep  and  precipitate  ravine,  and  on  the 
right  by  a  valley  which,  though  less  difficult,  was  im- 
practicable for  fighting.  Sucre's  army  lay  at  the 
eastern  extremity  of  the  plain,  at  the  edge  of  the  slope 
which  rises  from  Quinua.  Behind  was  no  cover  to  re- 
form in  if  defeated.  His  forces  were  a  little  less  than 
six  thousand,  and  he  had  only  one  cannon  against  the 
enemy's  eleven,  but  three-fourths  of  his  men  were  the 
pick  of  the  Colombian  veterans  and  the  rest  Peruvians 
of  high  spirit.  Tired  of  interminablie  marching 
through  the  mountains,  isolated  in  a  hostile  region, 
starvation  staring  them  in  the  face,  confident  of  their 
superiority,  man  for  man,  to  the  royalists,  and  led 
by  fiery  young  generals, — Sucre  was  only  thirty-one 
and  his  chief  lieutenant  twenty-five, — they  welcomed 
the  opportunity  to  fight  it  out  once  for  all,  face  to  face, 
man  to  man. 

The  morning  sun  of  the  9th  rose  radiant  behind 
the  mountains  where  the  Spaniards  lay  encamped. 
Sucre  deployed  his  army  in  the  open  plain,  riding 


66  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

down  the  line  exclaiming,  "Soldiers,  on  your  deeds 
this  day  depends  the  fate  of  South  America,"  while 
the  Spanish  columns  descended  in  perfect  order  from 
the  heights.  La  Serna  realized  that  his  men  would 
not  fight  with  the  same  spirit  as  the  patriots  and  that 
defeat  might  be  followed  by  wholesale  desertion,  but 
he  counted  on  his  artillery  and  the  reserve  he  had  left 
on  the  high  ground  as  a  sure  refuge  in  case  of  a 
reverse. 

The  story  of  the  battle  is  soon  told.  The  patriots 
advanced  to  meet  the  Spanish  attack;  musketry  vol- 
leys on  both  sides  did  terrific  execution,  and  the  two 
armies  met  bayonet  in  hand.  On  the  left  the  Spanish 
columns  were  unable  to  make  any  impression  on  the 
Colombian  infantry,  and  while  the  conflict  was  still 
undecided  the  royalist  cavalry  rashly  charged,  hoping 
to  strike  a  deciding  blow.  But  they  were  met  by  a 
counter  charge  of  the  patriot  squadrons  and  rolled 
back  to  defeat.  The  whole  left  of  the  royalist  army 
dispersed,  and  such  was  the  confusion  that  the  impetu- 
ously pursuing  Colombians  reached  the  Spanish  camp 
and  spiked  the  artillery,  defeating  on  the  way  the 
enemy's  center.  In  the  meantime  the  Spanish  right 
under  Valdez  had  outflanked  the  Peruvians  who  held 
that  part  of  the  line  and  driven  them  back,  but  before 
he  could  reach  the  patriot  center  the  battle  had  been 
decided.  Attacked  by  the  victorious  cavalry,  Valdez's 
men  were  cut  to  pieces,  and  by  one  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  the  Spanish  army,  except  the  reserve  under 
Canterac,  had  ceased  to  exist  as  an  organized  body. 


THE  WARS  OF  INDEPENDENCE  67 

Of  the  royalists,  fourteen  hundred  were  dead.  The 
viceroy  was  wounded  and  a  prisoner,  his  men  desert- 
ing and  dispersing  by  hundreds.  Of  the  patriots  six 
hundred  were  wounded  and  three  hundred  dead. 
Canterac  sued  for  terms,  and  that  afternoon  fourteen 
generals,  five  hundred  and  sixty-eight  officers,  and 
three  thousand  two  hundred  privates  became  prisoners 
of  war.  Never  was  a  victory  more  complete  and  de- 
cisive than  Ayacucho.  The  war  for  independence 
was  over.  Only  under  Olaneta  in  far  southern  Bo- 
livia and  at  Callao  castle  did  a  Spaniard  remain  under 
arms.  Sucre  marched  to  Cuzco,  where  he  rested  and 
refitted  and  then  went  on  to  Puno  and  La  Paz.  01a- 
neta's  troops  deserted  as  the  Colombian  approached, 
and  the  last  of  the  Spanish  generals  fell  at  the  hands 
of  his  own  men  as  he  was  bravely  trying  to  suppress 
a  mutiny.  Callao  castle  held  out  for  thirteen  months, 
and  with  its  surrender  was  hauled  down  the  last  Span- 
ish flag  which  floated  on  the  South  American  main- 
land.'' 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  ISTHMUS 

THE  Republic  of  Panama  is  425  miles  long  and 
averages  70  miles  in  width.  Its  most  southern 
point  is  a  little  above  seven  degrees  north  of  the 
equator,  its  northern  point  about  9°  50'.  It  is  in  the 
same  latitude  as  Ceylon  and  Mindanao.  It  is  almost 
due  south  of  Buffalo. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  when  Balboa  discov- 
ered the  Pacific,  he  christened  it  the  Southern  Sea,  for 
the  Isthmus  runs  east  and  west.  Every  new  arrival 
gets  the  points  of  compass  twisted,  because  of  the 
habit  of  thinking  of  the  Pacific  as  a  western  ocean. 
Panama  City  is  south  and  east  of  Colon,  the  Atlantic 
entrance  of  the  canal.  In  Panama  the  sun  rises  out  of 
the  Pacific. 

The  land  frontiers  of  the  republic  are  less  than  four 
hundred  miles  in  the  total,  and  are  about  equally  di- 
vided between  the  Costa  Rican  and  Colombian  border. 
But  the  total  coast  line  is  over  1,200  miles,  seven  hun- 
dred of  which  is  on  the  Pacific. 

The  most  important  physical  feature  of  the  Isth- 
mus is  that  here  the  great  chain  of  mountains,  which 
form  the  backbone  of  the  hemisphere  from  Alaska  to 
Patagonia,  breaks  down  into  scattered  hills  and  low 
divides.    At  Culebra — where  we  are  making  our  deep- 

68 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  ISTHMUS        69 

est  cut — the  pass  was  only  290  feet  above  sea  level. 
The  highest  peak  in  the  republic  is  the  Cerro  del 
Picacho  near  the  Costa  Rican  border.  It  is  a  little 
over  7,000  feet.  There  are  four  other  mountains  in 
the  western  provinces  which  are  over  5,000  feet.  They 
gradually  decrease  in  height  to  the  center  of  the 
isthmus  and  then  begin  to  climb  again  towards  the 
Colombian  borders,  where  they  again  approach  5,000 
feet. 

The  republic  is  divided  into  the  followmg  prov- 
inces: (1)  Bocas  del  Toro,  (2)  Chiriqui,  (3)  Vera- 
guas,  (4)  Los  Santos,  (5)  Code,  (6)  Colon,  and  (7) 
Panama.  The  la^t  is  by  far  the  largest,  more  than  a 
third  of  the  total,  and  Code  is  the  smallest. 

Bocas  del  Torro  (the  mouths  of  the  bull)  is  the 
extreme  northwest.  It  is  notable  for  the  wonderful 
Almirante  Bay  and  Chiriqui  Lagoon.  They  are  really 
one  body  of  water,  as  the  long  narrow  peninsula  which 
divides  them  is  almost  an  island.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered by  students  of  President  Lincoln's  administra- 
tion that  this  was  one  of  the  locations  considered  by 
our  government  for  a  naval  station.  In  fact,  it  is  al- 
most certain  that  if  Lincoln  had  not  been  assassinated 
we  would  have  acquired  Lagoon.  He  had  been  deeply 
impressed  by  the  difficulty  of  blockading  the  Gulf 
ports  without  some  such  base,  and  he  kept  Seward  busy 
trying  to  acquire  one  of  the  West  India  islands  or 
some  post  on  the  mainland. 

The  Chiriqui  Lagoon  is  thirty-five  miles  long  from 
east  to  west  and  about  twelve  miles  wide.     It  is  an 


70  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

unbroken  sheet  of  water  and  almost  everywhere  navi- 
gable for  the  biggest  warships. 

Almirante  Bay — really  the  northwestern  extension 
of  the  Lagoon — is  a  maze  of  waterways  between  its 
numerous  islands.  It  has,  however,  a  number  of 
fairly  large  harbors  and  deep  water  in  most  of  its 
channels.  In  many  places  the  banks  are  so  abrupt 
that  a  deep  draught  steamer  can  tie  up  to  the  shore. 
The  mainland  is  a  tableland  about  six  hundred  feet 
high  and  within  a  few  miles  reaches  an  elevation  of 
2,000  feet.  It  is  remarkably  salubrious,  and  on  account 
of  its  ideal  facilities  for  bathing  and  small  boating  and 
its  marvelous  scenery,  seems  doomed  to  develop  into 
a  smart  winter  resort. 

At  present  the  province  is  practically  a  feudal 
domain  of  the  United  Fruit  Company,  and  banana 
growing  is  its  principal  industry.  The  Chanquinolo 
River  is  one  of  the  finest  spots  in  the  world  for  this 
fruit.  There  is  said  to  be  coal  of  good  quality  in  the 
province,  but  it  has  never  been  mined. 

Bocas  del  Toro,  a  town  of  about  six  thousand  in- 
habitants, is  the  capital  of  the  province.  It  is  built  on 
an  island  at  the  mouth  of  Almirante  Bay  and  is  a  very 
busy  port  of  export.  About  five  steamers  and  as  many 
sailing  vessels  clear  from  Bocas  every  day,  loaded 
down  to  the  scuppers  with  fruit. 

The  province  of  Chirique  lies  to  the  south  and 
east  of  Bocas  del  Toro.  It  has  considerable  frontage  on 
both  oceans.  David,  the  capital,  has  about  eight  thou- 
sand inhabitants  and  is  rapidly  growing.     It  is  the 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  ISTHMUS        71 

largest  inland  city  of  the  republic  and  far  and  away 
the  most  progressive. 

There  has  long  been  a  large  grain  and  cattle  trade 
in  this  province  and  new  crops  are  being  planted, 
new  industries  started  with  surprising  frequency.  It 
is  the  favorite  location  for  foreign  settlers.  The  re- 
ports one  hears  from  those  who  have  gone  in  for  agri- 
culture are  universally  favorable.  The  present  gov- 
ernment has  passed  a  bill  authorizing  the  building  of 
a  national  railroad  from  Panama  to  David.  It  is  not 
quite  certain  that  the  necessary  financial  arrangements 
can  be  made,  but  if  the  railroad  is  built  it  will  of  course 
give  a  new  impetus  to  the  prosperity  of  Chiriqui  and 
the  intervening  provinces.  The  talk  about  the  rail- 
road— the  survey  has  already  been  made — has  induced 
a  good  deal  of  land  speculation.  But  the  values  of 
land  in  this  district  have  been  steadily  rising  for  gene- 
rations and  even  if  the  railroad  project  falls  through, 
real  estate  is  a  good  investment. 

In  the  early  colonial  days  the  Spaniards  worked 
some  very  rich  gold  mines  in  the  mountains  of  Chiri- 
qui, and  one  of  the  most  popular  industries  today  is 
that  of  trying  to  relocate  lost  mines.  It  is  here,  also, 
that  the  signs  of  the  highest  pre-Colombian  civilization 
have  been  found.  The  high  development  of  art  and 
architecture  with  which  Cortez  met  in  Mexico,  seems  to 
have  petered  out  to  the  southward.  In  the  other  states 
of  Central  America  some  imposing  ruins  have  been 
found.  The  largest  are  in  Guatemala.  In  Costa  Rica 
there  are  few  signs  of  architectural  development  and 


72  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

the  pottery  implements  are  very  crude.  In  Chiriqui 
one  finds  only  a  few  "painted  stones"  and  graves.  A 
popular  form  of  vocation  for  the  American  employees 
on  the  canal  is  to  go  grave- robbing  in  the  mountains 
back  of  David.  A  native  walks  in  front  of  you  and 
pounds  the  ground  with  an  iron  rod.  If  he  gets  a 
hollow  sound,  he  digs.  If  he  strikes  a  grave  you  are 
almost  sure  to  find  weird  pottery  and  sometimes  gold 
ornaments.  M.  de  Zeltner,  a  former  French  Consul 
at  Panama,  has  written  an  interesting  brochure  on  the 
prehistoric  graves  of  this  district ;  and  the  Smithsonian 
Institute  has  published  an  elaborate  description  of 
them. 

Farther  east  is  the  province  of  Veraguas — wedge- 
shaped,  with  only  a  few  miles  on  the  Atlantic  coast 
and  a  couple  of  hundred  on  the  Pacific.  It  is  remark- 
able for  its  beautiful  islands  and  Montijo  Bay,  the 
second  of  the  great  harbors  of  the  isthmus. 

Coiba  Island  is  the  largest  in  the  Republic.  It  is 
more  than  twenty  miles  long,  well  wooded  and  fertile, 
but  is  very  sparsely  settled.  Jicaran,  further  out  to 
sea,  is  much  smaller,  but  rises  1,400  feet  above  the 
sea.  It  is  the  most  beautiful  of  all — a  real  distinction 
along  a  coast  studded  with  beautiful  islands. 

Monti  jo  Bay  is  fourteen  miles  long  by  nine  broad. 
Cebaco,  an  island  fifteen  miles  long,  stretches  across 
its  entrance  and  makes  it  one  of  the  most  sheltered 
harbors  ever  contrived  by  nature. 

Veraguas,  and  the  small  province  of  Los  Santos, 
form  together  a  peninsula  which  reaches  to  the  south- 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  ISTHMUS        73 

ern  extremity  of  the  isthmus.  The  coast  then  turns 
back — an  accurate  angle — and  runs  northwest  up  to 
Parita  Bay  and  the  province  of  Code. 

These  three  provinces  are  the  least  developed  of 
the  republic.  They  are  sparsely  settled.  The  blood  of 
the  population  varies  between  the  formulae:  one-tenth 
Spaniard,  one-tenth  Cholo  Indian,  eight-tenths  negro, 
and  one-tenth  Spanish,  one-tenth  negro,  eight-tenths 
Indian.  Near  the  coast  the  negro  strain  predominates, 
in  the  hills  that  of  the  Indian. 

The  roads  are  the  merest  trails — impassable,  even 
for  Indians  on  foot,  during  much  of  the  rainy  season. 
There  is  very  little  circulation  of  commodities  beyond 
navigable  water.  The  population  has  the  ingrown  in- 
dolence which  comes  from  life  in  such  bountiful  coun- 
tries. It  is  only  necessary  to  scratch  the  earth  with  a 
stick  to  make  yams  and  plantains  grow.  The  only 
tools  needed  for  rice  are  a  pair  of  hands.  And  one 
could  not  stop  the  plentiful  harvest  of  cocoanuts  if 
one  tried. 

Colon  Province  is  the  extreme  north  of  the  isth- 
mus. ,What  has  just  been  said  about  the  three  prov- 
inces to  the  west  applies  to  it,  with  the  exception  of 
Colon  City.  And  this  city  is  entirely  the  work  of  for- 
eigners. It  was  founded,  and  at  first  called  Aspin- 
wall,  by  the  Panama  Railroad  Company  in  1850.  The 
province,  however,  is  rich  in  historical  interest.  Colum- 
bus himself  visited  the  coast  on  his  last  voyage  in 
1502.  He  named  Puerto  Bello,  and  what  is  now  called 
Colon  Harbor,  he  christened  Navy  Bay.    Not  far  from 


74  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

the  present  city  of  Colon  he  attempted  to  found  a 
colony — it  would  have  been  the  first  on  the  continent. 
His  brother  Bartholomew  landed  a  company  of  set- 
tlers, but  the  day  before  the  great  admiral  sailed  away 
they  were  attacked  by  the  Indians  and  driven  to  the 
ships.  It  was  along  this  shore  that  Don  Diego  de 
Nicuesa,  seven  years  later,  strove  so  desperately  to 
gain  a  foothold  for  his  sovereign.  He  had  set  out 
with  a  brilliant  following  to  establish  a  Spanish  colony 
and  met  with  a  series  of  almost  incredible  disasters. 
Beaten  back  by  the  savage  natives,  buffeted  by  storms, 
his  ships  eaten  by  worms,  he  and  the  pitiful  remnant 
of  his  expedition  came  to  a  favorable  looking  harbor. 
*ln  the  name  of  God,"  he  cried,  "let  us  stop  here." 
Nomhre  de  Dios,  they  called  the  place,  and  it  is  still 
on  the  map. 

East  along  the  coast  from  Colon  is  the  Gulf  of 
San  Bias,  »named  after  the  most  unique  tribe  of 
Indians  left  in  America.  The  San  Bias  have  never 
been  conquered.  And  they  have  preserved  their 
ethnic  purity  as  intact  as  their  territory.  Their  coast 
is  famous  for  its  cocoanuts — the  finest  on  the  market. 
A  number  of  schooners  trade  with  the  villages  along 
the  shore  and  on  the  island,  but  there  are  no  European 
settlements  in  their  territory. 

The  province  of  Panama,  with  long  coast  lines  on 
both  oceans,  is  in  the  eastern  extreme  of  the  republic. 
Most  of  it  is  undeveloped,  but  there  is  considerable 
cattle  raising.  Several  companies  with  foreign  capital 
have  been  established  in  the  Bayano  Valley.     They 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  ISTHMUS        75 

are  interested  in  bananas,  cocoanuts,  vegetable  ivory, 
rubber,  cocoa,  and  other  native  products.  A  lumber 
company,  an  English  affair,  is  planning  to  exploit  the 
mahogany  and  cabinet  woods.  And  down  towards  the 
Colombian  border,  near  the  head  waters  of  the  Tuyra 
River,  are  the  properties  of  the  Darien  Gold  Mining 
Company.  The  mines  date  from  prehistoric  times  and 
there  have  been  very  few  long  interruptions  in  the 
taking  out  of  bullion.  At  present  the  company  is  run 
under  an  English  charter,  but  most  of  the  stockholders 
and  the  technical  managers  are  French. 

The  province  of  Panama  contains  the  third  of  the 
great  natural  harbors  of  the  isthmus.  San  Miguel 
Bay,  with  its  inner  Darien  Harbor,  from  the  immense 
outer  bay,  is  almost  closed  by  a  large  island,  on  either 
side  of  which  are  deep,  safe  channels,  the  Boca  Chico 
and  the  Boca  Grande.  Beyond  them,  is  an  unbroken 
expanse  of  water,  thirty  miles  long  by  half  that  width. 
All  the  navies  of  all  the  nations  could  anchor  here  in 
safety.  Half  a  dozen  submarine  mines  would  make 
the  place  the  surest  refuge  in  the  world. 

The  big  tides  form  a  great  advantage  over  the 
Chiriqui  Lagoon.  They  rise  and  fall  fifteen  feet — 
and  at  "spring  tide"  twenty  feet.  The  shores  of  the 
harbor  are  natural  dry-docks.  Any  ships  which  visit 
these  coasts  can  be  run  on  the  beach  on  the  top  of  the 
tide  and  left  high  and  dry  when  it  falls.  A  further 
advantage  is  that  the  Tuyra  River  is  navigable  be- 
yond salt  water.  A  short  anchorage  in  fresh  water 
kills  the  barnacles,  here  the  pest  of  navigation. 


76  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

Off  the  mouth  of  San  Miguel  Bay  are  the  Pearl 
Islands.  The  archipelago  is  over  thirty  miles  long. 
There  are  sixteen  high  islands  and  innumerable  small 
ones.  The  Isle  del  Rey  is  over  ten  miles  long  and  as 
big  as  all  the  rest  put  together.  Most  of  the  islands 
which  have  fresh  water  are  occupied.  There  is  a 
considerable  output  of  cocoanuts  and  pineapples,  but 
of  course  the  pearl  fisheries  are  the  big  industry. 

Taking  the  Isthmus  as  a  whole  its  most  noticeable 
feature  is  the  maze  of  innnumerable  rivers.  As  a 
rule  the  mountains  are  nearer  the  Atlantic  than  the 
Pacific ;  so  most  of  the  longer  rivers  are  on  the  south- 
ern slope.  Hbwever,  the  Rio  Code  del  Norte  has  its 
source  in  the  province  of  Code,  and  crosses  that  of 
Colon  to  empty  into  the  Caribbean.  The  Chagres 
River,  which  is  to  furnish  the  water  for  the  canal,  is 
also  a  northern  stream.  It  is  about  one  hundred  miles 
long  and  navigable  half  that  distance  by  small  boats. 

The  largest  of  all  rivers  is  the  Tuyra,  or  Rio  del 
Santa  Maria,  as  the  old  maps  have  it.  From  its 
mouth  in  Darien  Harbor  it  is  navigable  for  small 
steamers  and  schooners  fifty  miles  inland.  The  cayu- 
kas,  native  dugouts,  go  up  it  and  its  tributary,  the 
Chucunaque,  for  fifty  miles  more. 

In  the  face  of  the  unquestioned  resources  of  the 
Isthmus,  there  is  remarkably  little  development.  There 
are  three  main  obstacles  in  the  way  of  foreign  enter- 
prise : 

1.  The  uncertainty  of  land  titles.  There  are  a 
dozen  large  estates  which  would  be  bought  up  and 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  ISTHMUS        17 

developed  at  once  if  titles  were  clear,  which  are  tied 
up  in  litigation.  Always  some  of  the  heirs  are  ob- 
structing a  settlement,  in  the  hope  that  the  next  turn- 
over in  politics  will  put  some  of  their  friends  on  the 
bench.  There  are  almost  no  accurate  surveys  and  the 
records  of  the  land  office  are  in  a  mess.  In  Hon- 
duras an  American  once  found  a  deed  which  recorded 
the  corner  of  the  property  as  marked  by  "a  dead 
mahogany  tree,  with  two  ravens  on  the  branch." 
Perhaps  the  Panama  records  do  not  offer  so  crude  an 
absurdity;  but  nine  out  of  ten  of  the  myriad  springs 
in  the  country  are  called  Aguadulce,  and  many  deeds 
give  "a  spring  called  Aguadulce"  as  the  boundary 
mark.  Frequently  the  original  land  grants  read  "from 
the  sea  back  to  the  mountains."  When  the  hinterland 
had  no  value  this  was  a  satisfactory  description,  but 
it  is  now  a  fruitful  source  of  dispute.  Very  few  land- 
holders know  definitely  how  much  they  own. 

2.  The  next  obstacle  to  progress  is  the  dearth  of 
good  roads — the  almost  total  lack  of  bridges.  The 
country,  for  instance,  is  full  of  valuable  cabinet  woods. 
A  dozen  companies  have  come  to  grief  after  acquiring 
good  title  to  enough  standing  mahogany  to  make  a 
fortune.  It  is  next  to  impossible  to  get  the  stuff  out. 
And  there  are  immense  tracts  of  valuable  banana  land 
lying  fallow  for  want  of  transportation.  It  works 
both  ways,  as  it  is  just  as  difficult  to  get  machinery 
and  provisions  in  as  it  is  to  get  your  commodity  out. 

3.  The  third  obstacle — and  the  most  serious  of  all 
for  a  large  undertaking — is  the  dearth  of  labor  force. 


78  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

If  the  enterprise  requires  steady  labor,  it  must  be  im- 
ported. The  native  population  is  small  and  long  tradi- 
tion has  habituated  them  to  the  simplest  of  simple  lives. 
Nature  is  so  bountiful  that  a  man  can  easily  raise  a 
family  according  to  accepted  standards  of  living  by 
two  days'  work  a  week.  It  is  easy  almost  anywhere 
on  the  Isthmus  to  get  fifty  men  to  work  for  you.  But 
as  soon  as  they  have  earned  enough  to  buy  a  year's 
supply  of  powder  and  shot,  and  half  a  dozen  needles 
for  the  wife,  it  is  all  over.  Five  dollars  a  day  would 
not  keep  them  on  the  job.  They  will  have  to  be  edu- 
cated up  to  a  new  and  very  much  more  complex  sys- 
tem of  "wants,"  before  they  will  become  reliable 
workmen. 

The  banana  fields  of  the  United  Fruit  Company  in 
Bocas  del  Toro  are  the  biggest  foreign  enterprise  in 
the  republic.  They  have  successfully  overcome  the  last 
two  obstacles.  Their  fruit  grows  near  water  and  they 
have  built  a  network  of  rails  into  the  more  remote 
fields.  They  control  good  harbors,  so  their  transpor- 
tation problem  is  solved.  And  they  import  their  labor 
from  the  West  India  islands.  But  their  land  titles 
are  in  a  bad  tangle  and  it  is  costing  many  thousands 
of  dollars  to  get  them  straightened  out. 

The  Darien  Gold  Mining  Company  is  the  oldest 
and  most  firmly  established  in  the  country.  Their 
titles  are  clear.  They  run  a  small  steamer  weekly 
from  Panama  to  Marriganti  on  the  Tuyra  River,  and 
they  transport  upriver  in  cayukas  and,  during  the  rainy 
season,  in  a  flat-bottomed  stern-wheeler  to  the  head  of 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  ISTHMUS        79 

navigation,  from  which  they  operate  a  miniature  rail- 
road to  the  mine  site.  They  also  have  to  import  most 
of  their  labor. 

Another  industry  in  which  there  is  invested  consid- 
erable capital — mostly  local —  is  pearl  fishing.  It  does 
not  seem  to  be  well  organized,  but  considering  the 
slipshod  methods  it  is  very  profitable.  The  **mother- 
of-pearl"  from  the  shells  pays  a  small  interest  on  the 
capital  and  all  the  real  pearls  are  clear  profit.  There 
are  twenty  or  thirty  ships  equipped  with  diving  appa- 
ratus, which  operate  at  the  islands  and  up  and  down 
the  coast.  But  the  majority  of  the  diving  is  done  by 
the  natives  of  the  Pearl  Islands.  They  are  enslaved 
to  the  companies  by  debt  and  are  viciously  exploited. 

Any  large  enterprise  by  outsiders  demands  suffi- 
cient capital  and  patience  to  secure  clear  titles,  effi- 
cient transportation  and  a  steady  labor  force.  This 
applies  only  to  "big  business."  The  Isthmus  offers 
opportunity  to  half  a  million  settlers  of  the  type  of  our 
forefathers  who  pushed  across  the  Appalachians  and 
won  the  West.  One  who  wants  to  live  close  to  nature 
will  hunt  long  before  he  finds  a  location  where  the 
Old  Mother  is  kindlier.  The  opportunities  for  small 
homes  are  limitless.  Much  fertile  land  is  unoccupied 
and  can  be  taken  up  under  the  homestead  law.  Dozens 
of  profitable  crops  are  practical — rice,  onions,  rubber, 
bananas  and  other  fruits.^ 


CHAPTER  VI 


THE  PANAMANIANS 


THERE  is  little  real  friendship  between  the  Ameri- 
cans on  the  Isthmus  and  the  natives.  In  tem- 
perament and  tradition  we  are  miles  away  from  the 
Panamanians.  The  hostility  between  Latin  and  Saxon 
probably  dates  back  to  the  old  Roman  days  when  the 
Saxons  first  began  to  plunder  the  Latins. 

When  the  Spanish  Empire  sprang  up  in  America, 
its  most  relentless  enemies  were  the  Protestants  of 
England.  Even  in  the  odd  moments  when  the  two 
mother  countries  were  not  at  war,  the  colonists  never 
buried  the  hatchet.  From  the  days  of  Drake  till  the 
fall  of  Carthagena,  the  Latin  people  of  Central  Amer- 
ica lived  in  constant  fear  of  the  English  buccaneers. 

Since  our  revolution,  they  have  transferred  this 
dread  to  us.  Gradually,  but  apparently  restlessly, 
the  United  States  have  expanded — always  at  the  cost 
of  Spanish  America.  Florida,  Texas  and  California, 
the  Philippines,  Porto  Rico,  one  after  the  other,  have 
disappeared  down  the  maw  of  what  our  southern 
neighbors  are  wont  to  call  "The  Northern  Vulture." 

Very  many  of  our  representatives  in  the  Canal 
Zone  have  made  sincere  efforts  to  establish  friendly 
relations  with  the  native  population.  A  few  still  con- 
tinue such  efforts,  but  most  have  given  it  up  as  hope- 


so 


THE  PANAMANIANS  81 

less.  The  two  people  live  side  by  side,  meet  occasion- 
ally at  the  theatre  or  public  receptions,  but  very  rarely 
become  intimate.  Perhaps  half  a  dozen  men  have 
married  Panamanian  wives,  but  I  have  not  heard  of 
a  single  American  woman  marrying  a  native. 

This  age-old  hostility  to  the  "Gringo"  is  deep- 
rooted.  Differences  in  language,  customs  and  reli- 
gious practices  keep  the  breach  wide.  So  any  descrip- 
tion of  the  people  is  necessarily  that  of  an  outsider. 
Very  likely  many  of  the  things  which  seem  ludicrous 
or  unlovely  to  us  might  be  understood  and  overlooked 
if  they  would  admit  us  to  greater  intimacy. 

Panamanian  society  is  sharply  divided  in  classes. 
The  people  on  top  are  either  old  Spanish  families, 
whose  income  is  dependent  on  land,  or  well-established 
families  of  foreign  extraction  who  have  been  natural- 
ized for  many  years  and  whose  source  of  income  is 
industrial.  The  descendants  of  the  Conquistadores 
look  down  on  these  parvenu  families  in  private,  but 
are  so  generally  in  debt  to  them  that  they  dare  not  do 
so  in  public.     They  form  a  pretty  solid  social  block. 

The  division  in  regard  to  politics  is  sharper  than 
that  of  heredity.  At  present  the  Liberal  party  is  in 
power  and  the  Conservatives  are  getting  social  as  well 
as  political  snubs.  One  of  the  most  noticeable  things 
about  these  people  is  their  inability  to  bury  political 
differences.  Theirs  is  a  politic  of  personalities,  first, 
last,  and  all  the  time.  The  Conservative  members  of 
"The  Union  Club"  are  resigning — although  the  club 
was  formed  as  a  place  where  the  two  sides  could 


82  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

meet  socially — because  they  feel  that  they  have  not 
been  fairly  treated  in  committee  appointments.  As  a 
general  proposition,  Conservatives  and  Liberals  will 
not  break  any  manner  of  bread  together.  During  the 
elections  for  the  Queen  of  the  Carnivals,  all  good 
Liberals  vote  for  the  daughter  of  a  Liberal. 

This  political  bitterness,  which  shows  itself  so  un- 
pleasantly in  social  life,  goes  to  even  worse  extremes 
in  the  business  of  politics.  Every  political  turn-over 
means  an  entire  house  cleaning.  Every  government 
official,  from  judge  to  street  cleaner,  loses  his  job — 
to  make  way  for  a  member  of  the  triumphant  party. 
The  Liberal  party,  now  in  power,  has  developed  the 
''machine  patronage  system"  to  ludicrous  lengths. 
They  seem  bent  on  creating  a  job  for  every  one  of  a 
safe  majority  of  voters.  Panama  City  has  enough 
policemen  for  a  city  ten  times  its  size.  Consulates 
have  been  sprinkled  all  over  the  map — often  in  places 
that  never  saw  a  Panamanian  till  the  consul  arrived. 

There  is  absolute  unanimity  on  the  question  that 
what  the  Republic  needs  before  and  above  everything 
else  are  roads.  With  its  long  coast  lines  and  many 
navigable  rivers,  it  is  unusually  adapted  to  the  cheap- 
est of  all  forms  of  transportation — by  water.  Small 
amounts  of  money  spent  in  harbor  works  in  half  a 
dozen  places,  a  few  good  roads  leading  inland  from 
the  harbors,  would  open  up  large  districts.  Yet  the 
1910  National  Assembly  voted  to  tie  up  all  the  re- 
serve capital  in  a  railroad  of  doubtful  utility.  In  trop- 
ical countries  railroading  is  expensive  transportation. 


THE  PANAMANIANS  83 

The  little  Republic  of  Panama  made  its  bow  to  the 
world  in  the  enviable  position  of  having,  several  dol- 
lars per  capita  in  the  bank,  when  most  of  its  older  sis- 
ters were  heavily  in  debt.  Most  of  this  reserve  has 
been  dissipated  in  the  extravagant  building  of  national 
theaters  and  national  universities,  or  in  more  extrava- 
gant pay  rolls.  Very  little  of  it  has  gone  in  real 
development  of  the  country. 

Besides  the  class  composed  of  landed  gentry  poli- 
ticians and  financial  industrial  politicians,  lies  the  great 
mass  of  the  people,  who  take  no  more  part  in  govern- 
ment affairs  than  they  do  in  government  receptions. 
One  sees  them  at  their  worst  in  the  cities,  as  is  true  in 
every  country.  The  Sanitary  Department  has  cleaned 
up  the  slums,  and  the  housing  conditions  are  better 
than  in  more  prosperous  communities.  In  the  coun- 
try they  lead  a  sort  of  Arcadian  life.  There  is  much 
free  land,  and  those  who  have  not  acquired  any  prop- 
erty "squat"  wherever  the  fancy  strikes  them. 

Of  course,  the  base  of  the  population  is  Indian — a 
squat,  square- faced  type,  completely  unlike  the  illus- 
trations in  the  de  luxe  editions  of  Hiawatha.  There 
are  two  main  ethnic  groups  of  Indians.  The  Cholos, 
a  fairly  pure  type,  is  found  in  the  mountains  of  Code 
province,  and  are  scattered  all  up  and  down  the 
west  coast,  from  the  borders  of  Mexico  to  the  edge  of 
Peru.  The  early  Spanish  adventurers  found  that 
friendly  Indians  from  the  Isthmus  could  act  as  inter- 
preters within  these  limits. 

In  the  northeastern  part  of  the  country,  beginning 


84  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

at  the  Gulf  of  San  Bias  and  extending  almost  to  the 
Colombian  border,  and  inland  to  the  Chucunaque 
River,  are  the  San  Bias.  Probably  of  the  same  race 
as  the  Cholos,  they  have  become  differentiated  in  the 
four  centuries  since  the  visit  of  Columbus,  in  that  they 
have  never  been  conquered  and  have  not  allowed  inter- 
marriage. They  are  estimated  at  about  20,000  and  are 
reputed  to  be  well  armed.  As  the  Republic  has  no 
army,  they  have  every  prospect  of  maintaining  their 
independence  for  a  long  time  to  come. 

They  are  not  unfriendly  to  the  white  population, 
and  treasure  an  especial  respect  for  the  English,  who, 
tradition  tells  them,  are  irreconcilable  enemies  of  their 
enemies,  the  Spaniards.  The  San  Bias  men  frequently 
come  up  to  Colon  and  Panama  with  cayukas  laden 
with  cocoanuts,  scrap  rubber,  and  other  products, 
which  they  trade  for  powder  and  salt  and  needles  and 
cloth.  They  allow  traders  along  their  coast,  but  never 
permit  them  to  stay  on  shore  during  the  night.  They 
guard  their  women  to  such  an  extent  that  a  white  man 
rarely  sees  one  of  them  except  through  glasses.  The 
moment  a  stranger  approaches  a  village,  the  women 
disappear  into  the  bush. 

The  Cholo  Indians  have  not  preserved  their  ethnic 
purity  and  seem  to  have  no  sentiment  in  the  matter. 
Most  of  the  crossing  has  been  with  the  negroes,  the 
slaves  of  colonial  days,  their  descendants,  and  the 
recent  immigrants  from  the  West  Indies.  But  the 
crossing  of  the  races  has  been  varied  in  the  extreme. 
At  El  Real  on  the  Tuyra  River,  a  pure  type  of  Cholo 


THE  PANAMANIANS  85 

girl  was  married  to  the  leading  Chinese  merchant,  and 
the  two  babies  are  almond-eyed  and  yellow  skinned. 
It  is  generally  affirmed  that  aside  from  the  San  Bias 
people,  no  native  of  Panama  is  of  pure  blood.  The 
color  line  is  not  drawn  in  the  official  and  social  circles 
of  the  cities,  so  of  course  it  is  not  on  the  country-side. 
Family  life  is  simple  in  the  extreme.  John  and 
Jenny,  or  more  probably  Jose  and  Dolores,  walk  off 
some  fine  day.  If  they  happen  to  pass  a  priest,  they 
may  stop  and  get  married.  When  they  find  a  satis- 
factory place,  it  does  not  take  them  many  days  to  get 
settled.  They  have  probably  started  out  with  a  couple 
of  machetes,  an  earthen  pot  and  a  hammock.  They 
build  a  roof  and  hoist  it  up  on  four  poles.  They  begin 
cutting  out  a  clearing,  and  at  the  end  of  the  dry  sea- 
son, burn  off  the  fallen  timber.  Until  their  first  crop 
comes  to  harvest,  they  borrow  rice  and  yams  and  plan- 
tains from  their  relatives  if  there  does  not  happen  to 
be  a  stranger  more  near  at  hand.  In  the  course  of  a 
few  years  they  have  many  children,  their  original 
shelter  has  been  turned  into  a  kitchen,  and  a  new 
ranche  with  woven  walls  has  become  their  residence. 
They  have  several  acres  under  mild  cultivation.  The 
bananas  and  oranges  have  begun  to  bear.  Dolores  has 
woven  several  new  hammocks,  has  molded  several  new 
pots  and  pans,  and  has  made  a  dozen  different  house- 
hold utensils  out  of  the  fruit  of  their  thriving  calabash 
tree.  They  have  become  people  of  consideration,  and 
are  now  in  a  position  to  lend  yams  and  rice  to  more 
recently  established  homes. 


86  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

Once  a  year  or  so,  Jose  sets  out  for  the  nearest 
town.  He  loads  up  with  various  medicinal  gums  they 
have  gathered,  a  few  pounds  of  rubber  scrap,  and,  if 
Dolores  is  a  clever  artisan  at  hat  weaving  or  gourd 
carving,  with  her  handiwork.  On  the  way  he  stops  at 
every  hacienda  he  passes  and  asks  for  work.  In  due 
course  he  reaches  town  with  a  handful  of  silver,  buys 
what  supplies  he  needs  and  returns  to  Dolores  for 
another  long  sleep.  As  soon  as  the  oldest  boy  grows 
up,  he  sends  him  to  town  instead,  and  sleeps  all  the 
year  round. 

The  formal  tribal  relations  have  broken  down 
among  the  Cholo  Indians.  They  appear  to  be,  accord- 
ing to  Herbert  Spencer's  ideal,  the  happiest  of  people, 
for  they  are  certainly  the  least  governed.  Half  a 
dozen  whom  I  questioned  did  not  know  who  was  presi- 
dent of  the  Republic.  There  seems  to  be  in  each  com- 
munity some  old  man  who  is  generally  considered 
wise.  Disputes  are  informally  submitted  to  him,  but 
he  has  no  authority  to  back  up  his  decisions. 

The  jungle  stretches  on  all  sides  invitingly.  Very 
few  of  the  Indians  have  acquired  sufficient  property 
to  bind  them  to  a  locality  or  community;  and  if  a 
man  feels  that  he  is  unjustly  treated  by  his  neighbors 
he  will  move. 

The  landed  gentry  generally  live  in  the  cities.  Their 
haciendas  are  unattractive  places,  the  cultivation  of 
their  estates  is  almost  nil.  In  general,  their  income 
comes  from  cattle  raising  or  those  forms  of  agricul- 
ture which  require  the  least  human  labor.     There  is 


THE  PANAMANIANS  87 

none  of  the  slavery  of  which  one  hears  so  much  in 
Mexico,  partly  because  the  Panamanian  gentry  are  too 
indolent  to  make  effective  slave  drivers,  but  more 
because  the  jungle  offers  such  ready  escape.  Almost 
every  time  you  find  an  even  moderately  well-cultivated 
estate,  you  will  find  a  foreigner  as  foreman. 

The  homes  of  the  rich  are  strangely  unattractive  to 
Northerners,  and  this  is  especially  remarkable,  as  most 
of  the  upper  class  have  been  educated  abroad.  I  spent 
nearly  a  week  in  a  household  not  far  from  Panama 
City.  They  were  the  most  important  people  of  the 
village,  and  reputed  to  be  rich.  They  were  so  nearly ' 
white  that  the  daughters  had  been  received  in  a  smart 
finishing  school  in  the  States.  Several  members  of  the 
family  had  been  in  Europe,  and,  taking  everything  into 
consideration,  one  would  naturally  expect  certain 
traces  of  advanced  culture. 

It  was  a  large  one-storied  house,  with  unglazed 
windows.  One  room,  which  served  as  a  dining-room 
and  living  room,  was  papered  with  a  cheap,  gaudy, 
green  and  gilt  paper,  stained  and  moldy  from  humid- 
ity. The  walls  of  the  other  rooms  were  bare.  In 
this  living-room  there  was  a  grand  piano  which  had 
been  out  of  tune  at  least  a  generation,  and  had  been 
superseded  by  a  graphophone.  Sousa  marches  were 
the  family's  preference  in  music.  On  the  wall  there 
was  a  chromo  portrait  of  Alphonso  XIII,  advertising 
a  brand  of  sherry,  and  a  hideous  crayon  enlargement 
from  a  photograph  of  the  father.  In  a  book-shelf 
there  was  a  fine  old  set  of  Cervantes,  a  couple  of 


88  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

French  and  English  dictionaries  and  text-books,  and 
a  file  of  La  Hacienda,  an  illustrated  magazine  pub- 
lished by  and  in  the  interests  of  an  American  manufac- 
turer of  farm  machinery.  I  did  not  see  any  member  of 
the  family  reading  anything  but  the  daily  paper  from 
Panama,  although  they  could  all  read  and  speak 
French  and  English. 

The  ladies  of  the  household  spent  the  morning  in 
dingy  mother  hubbards  and  slippers.  After  a  heavy  mid- 
day meal  they  retire  to  their  hammocks.  About  four 
o'clock  they  took  a  dip  in  the  ocean,  sat  around  the 
rest  of  the  evening  v^ith  a  towel  over  their  shoulders 
and  their  hair  drying.  About  a  month  later  I  encoun- 
tered one  of  these  young  ladies  at  a  ball  in  Panama. 
She  was  dressed  in  an  exquisite  Paris  gown,  and  was 
strikingly  beautiful.  She  would  have  passed  muster 
in  the  most  exclusive  set  in  any  European  capital.  It 
was  hard  to  believe  that  three  hundred  days  out  of  the 
year  she  led  the  slipshod,  slovenly  life  I  had  seen  in 
her  home. 

The  married  life  of  the  better  class  natives  does  not 
seem  attractive  to  Americans.  The  women  have  no 
social  intercourse  with  men,  except  at  infrequent 
balls  and  formal  dinners.  They  are  expected  to  keep 
their  feet  on  the  rocker  of  the  cradle  all  the  time. 
The  men  lead  their  social  life  in  cafes  and  clubs. 
"Calling"  is  unknown.  Many  amusing  stories  are 
told  of  the  excitement  and  astonishment  caused  by 
Americans  breaking  over  this  custom.  There  were  a 
great  many  love  feasts  in  the  early  days.    Every  one 


THE  PANAMANIANS  gp 

talked  of  friendship  between  the  two  nations  and 
the  Americans  believed  in  it.  And  our  young  men, 
having  duly  met  the  ladies  of  Panama  at  these  formal 
functions,  proceeded  to  "call"  in  form.  Invariably 
they  found  the  ladies  in  "deshabille'*  and  tongue-tied 
with  astonishment  at  the  invasion.  The  husbands 
were  outraged  at  this  attack  on  the  sanctity  of  their 
homes,  and  while  the  affair  fell  short  of  diplomatic 
incident,  a  lot  of  explaining  had  to  be  done  to  avoid 
the  duels  which  threatened. 

The  religion  of  the  country  is  Roman  Catholic 
Most  of  the  men,  however,  seem  to  be  free-thinkers. 
Even  more  than  in  Protestant  countries  the  congre- 
gations of  the  churches  are  made  up  of  women.  But 
especially  at  fiestas  the  churches  are  packed.  The 
ceremonial  in  these  Latin-American  countries  is  not 
as  attractive  as  it  is  in  Europe  nor  as  impressive  as 
it  is  in  Russia.  The  religious  fervor  which  marked 
the  clergy  in  the  early  days  of  colonization — the  mis- 
sionary spirit — seems  to  have  very  largely  given  place 
to  formalism,  and  rather  shoddy  formalism  at  that. 
Even  the  linen  on  the  high  altar  of  the  cathedral  is 
seldom  washed.  The  silken  finery  of  Nuestra  Senora 
del  la  Merced  is  motheaten.  The  worshipers  seem 
uninspired,  the  celebrants  of  the  mass  half  asleep. 
Only  once  I  heard  some  sisters  chanting  a  mass  in 
San  Felipo  Neri,  and  it  was  a  sadly  untrained  chorus. 

"Sport,"  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  sense,  is  hardly 
known  in  Panama.  The  nearest  approach  to  baseball, 
for  instance,  is  cock-fighting.    It  holds  a  place  in  the 


90  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

hearts  of  the  people  on  a  par  with,  if  not  above 
political  intrigue.  There  are  cock-fights  every  Sun- 
day, and  elections  only  once  a  year.  The  birds  are 
raised  with  great  care,  and  are  trained  and  fed  with 
as  much  solicitude  as  a  prize  fighter.  Sunday  morning 
while  the  women  are  at  church,  the  men  crowd  into 
the  cock-pit.  The  excitement  is  intense,  the  tobacco 
smoke  dense — and  the  sport  pitiful.  Two  cocks,  most 
of  their  feathers  shaved  off,  are  brought  into  the  ring 
by  their  keepers.  There  is  a  long  wrangle  over  odds,  and 
then  bets  are  tossed  in  from  the  circle  of  seats.  When 
the  debate  between  the  keepers  is  ended,  they  knock 
the  roosters'  heads  together  and  then  turn  them 
loose.  I  sat  through  a  couple  of  hours  of  it  once, 
and  only  one  bout  of  a  dozen  or  more  had  any  action 
to  it — or  any  suspense.  In  the  other  cases,  after  a 
little  sparring,  one  cock  ran  and  the  other  chased  it, 
round  and  round  the  pit.  Every  few  minutes  the 
backer  of  the  fleeing  cock  would  persuade  it  to  turn 
round  and  face  the  foe,  but  in  a  second  the  chase 
would  begin  again.  The  bout  was  ended  when  one 
cock  was  smitten  with  heart  failure.  Perhaps  the 
worst  thing  which  can  be  said  of  the  Panamanians  is 
that  cock  fighting  is  their  national  sport. 

Ice  is  almost  a  necessity  of  life  in  the  tropics.  A 
private  monopoly  in  Panama  City  manufactures  it 
and  sells  it  at  exhorbitant  prices.  The  Commissary 
has  a  fine  modern  plant  and  furnishes  ice  to  canal 
employees  at  cost.  A  few  families  reap  immense 
profit  from  the  ice  monopoly.     All  the  natives  pay 


THE  PANAMANIANS  91 

exorbitant  prices  for  it.  If  the  National  Assembly 
should  pass  a  resolution  instructing  the  President  to 
request  the  Commission  to  extend  its  commissary 
privileges  to  the  people  of  Panama,  nine-tenths  of  the 
population  would  benefit  immensely,  and  only  half  a 
dozen  already  rich  families  would  suffer.  It  pays 
these  families  to  stir  up  patriotism  to  the  extent  that 
the  natives  prefer  to  go  without  ice  rather  than  touch 
that  of  the  Gringos. 

An  even  more  striking  case  is  furnished  by  the 
situation  in  regard  to  electric  power  and  light.  The 
same  clique  who  own  the  ice  monopoly  have  an  anti- 
quated electric  plant,  operated  by  coal  brought  all  the 
way  from  the  States.  The  unit  cost  is  ludicrously 
high,  and  the  monopolistic  profit  is  extortionate.  A 
few  miles  out  of  Panama,  the  Commission  is  install- 
ing a  large  electrical  power  plant  to  operate  the 
Miraflores  Locks.  They  must  make  it  large  enough 
to  handle  the  maximum  of  traffic,  and  there  is  no 
possibility  of  the  maximum  being  reached  for  years 
to  come.  It  would  certainly  pay  our  government  to 
furnish  light  and  pov/er  to  Panama  at  less  than  cost. 
This  they  undoubtedly  would  and  could  do,  were  it 
not  for  the  bitter  hatred  which  the  people  have  for 
Americans. 

We  may  have  set  out  the  characteristics  of  the 
Panamanians  rather  harshly,  but  this  is  inevitable, 
when  it  is  considered  that  they  are  on  the  surface, 
while  their  virtues  they  hide  from  foreigners.^ 


CHAPTER  VII 

EVENTS  LEADING  TO  INDEPENDENCE 

THE  .history  of  Panama  is  for  the  most  part 
identified  with  that  of  Colombia,  of  which  re- 
public it  was  until  recently  a  province.  It  is  necessary 
to  know  something  of  certain  movements  and  tend- 
encies of  the  last  half  century  in  order  to  gain  a  just 
understanding  of  the  position  and  prospects  of  the 
new  republic. 

All  the  principles  of  advanced  democratic  gov- 
ernment were  included  in  the  program  of  the  party 
which  ruled  Colombia  from  1863  to  1883,  and  the 
leaders  earnestly  tried  to  put .  those  principles  into 
practical  effect.  They  dreamed  of  an  Utopia,  but  prac- 
tically their  efforts  only  aggravated  the  anarchical 
tendencies  bequeathed  by  the  Spaniards  and  Bolivar. 
Colombian  liberals  still  insist  that  a  persistent  enforce- 
ment of  the  constitution  and  principles  of  1863  would 
ultimately  transform  the  character  of  the  people — that 
religious  bigotry  and  priestly  influence  would  gradu- 
ally disappear;  that  the  progressive  enlightenment  of 
the  masses  would  make  military  despotism  and  revolu- 
tions impossible ;  and  that  in  process  of  time  the  rela- 
tions of  the  states  to  the  federal  government  would 
reach  a  satisfactory  and  workable  basis.    But  so  far 

92 


EVENTS  LEADING  TO  INDEPENDENCE       93 

as  the  experiment  went,  no  progress  was  made  toward 
unifying  the  nation  and  pacifying  the  adverse  ele- 
ments. Discontent,  disorders,  civil  wars  increased  in 
violence  as  the  years  went  by.  Though  one-fifth  of 
the  federal  revenues  were  spent  on  the  public  school 
system,  and  one-tenth  of  the  children  were  nominal 
attendants,  the  clergy  were  permitted  to  have  no  share 
in  their  control,  and  retaliated  by  excommunicating 
the  parents.  The  devoutly  pious  Creole  mothers  and 
wives,  threatened  with  the  closing  of  the  confessionals 
and  the  denial  of  absolution,  threw  their  incalculable 
influence  against  the  atheistic  government.  The  de- 
struction of  the  convents  and  the  confiscation  of  the 
vast  ecclesiastical  estates  violently  changed  the  owner- 
ship of  two-thirds  of  the  land  in  the  confederation, 
but  this  imposition  of  new  landlords  on  the  indus- 
trious, oppressed,  half-enslaved  tenantry  did  not  much 
modify  real  agricultural  conditions.  No  extensive 
subdivision  of  estates  resulted,  and  the  Creole  aris- 
tocracy continued  to  pay  more  attention  to  political 
intrigue  than  to  improving  their  property. 

Not  less  disappointing  in  its  practical  working  was 
the  independence  of  the  states.  Not  only  did  the  local 
bosses  constantly  abuse  autonomy  for  their  own  self- 
ish purposes,  but  the  presidents  of  Bogota  often  ig- 
nored the  constitutional  rights  of  the  states,  and 
selected  for  coercion  precisely  those  states  which  were 
farthest  from  the  capital  and  most  needed  wide  au- 
tonomous powers.  Though  Panama's  position  was 
isolated,  its  population  cosmopolitan,  its  commercial 


94  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

interests  and  social  structure  peculiar,  and  though  in 
colonial  times  its  dependence  on  Bogota  had  been  only 
nominal,  the  liberal  presidents  usually  ruled  it  like  a 
conquered  province.  Members  of  the  Andean  oli- 
gjarchy  poured  in  to  fatten  on  its  revenues;  the  au- 
tonomy guaranteed  by  the  constitution  proved  illu- 
sory, and  discontent  led  to  repeated  efforts  to  achieve 
absolute  independence. 

Rival  ambitions  among  its  own  leaders  furnished, 
however,  the  immediate  cause  of  the  downfall  of  the 
liberal  party.  A  close  oligarchy  grew  up  and  that 
inevitable  corollary,  a  powerful  faction  of  dissident 
liberals,  while  the  clericals  remained  formidable  and 
irreconcilable  even  after  their  bloody  overthrow  in 
1876.  Rafael  Nunez,  a  brilliant  writer,  a  resolute 
and  ambitious  party  chief,  and  a  leader  in  the  con- 
fiscation of  church  property,  had  been  defeated  in  his 
candidacy  for  the  presidency  in  1875.  The  younger 
and  dissatisfied  liberals  rallied  behind  him  in  his  war 
against  the  oligarchy,  and  in  1880  the  old-fashioned 
liberals  could  not  prevent  his  election  to  the  presi- 
dency. He  vigorously  strengthened  the  prerogatives 
of  the  federal  executive  and  built  up  his  personal  fol- 
lowing, but  although  the  issue  of  paper  money  and  the 
discontinuance  of  interest  on  the  foreign  debt — a  debt 
which  only  ten  years  before  had  been  scaled  down  to 
$10,000,000,  one-sixth  its  original  amount,  on  a  sol- 
emn promise  that  at  least  this  much  would  be  faith- 
fully paid — placed  large  funds  at  his  disposal,  the  old- 
line  liberals  were  strong  enough  to  prevent  his  re- 


EVENTS  LEADING  TO  INDEPENDENCE       95 

election  in  1882.  Their  victory  was  illusory  and  tem- 
porary; Nunez  controlled  both  houses  of  Congress 
and  was  able  to  block  President  Zaldua  at  every  turn. 
Eighty  years  old  and  in  feeble  health,  the  latter  died 
after  a  year  of  fruitless  struggle. 

After  a  short  ad  interim  administration  in  which 
Nunez's  influence  predominated,  he  was  re-elected  to 
the  presidency  and  installed  in  1884.  By  this  time 
his  centralizing  tendencies  were  manifest,  and  the 
measures  he  adopted  unmistakably  pointed  to  the  sub- 
stitution of  a  unified  republic  for  the  old  loose  con- 
federation. Many  of  his  liberal  supporters  fell  away 
and  he  was  driven  into  an  alliance  with  the  conserva- 
tives. Appointments  of  members  of  that  party  to 
important  positions  were  followed  by  the  great  revolt 
of  1885.  The  insurrectionists  delivered  their  main 
attack  on  the  Caribbean  coast,  whither  the  importa- 
tion of  arms  was  easy.  Much  of  the  department  of 
Magdalena  fell  into  their  hands,  and  they  besieged 
Cartagena  in  force.  But  when  one  of  their  expedi- 
tions invaded  the  Isthmus,  burning  Colon,  and  inter- 
rupting traffic  on  the  Panama  Railway,  the  president 
appealed  to  the  United  States,  as  previous  presidents 
had  done  in  similar  cases,  to  carry  out  the  guaranty 
of  free  transit  contained  in  the  treaty  of  1846.  At 
the  same  time  the  government  troops  attacked  and 
defeated  the  isolated  insurrectionists  at  Colon,  and 
shortly  afterwards  the  latter's  main  army  suffered  a 
bloody  repulse  in  an  assault  on  Cartagena.  This  broke 
the  back  of  the  movement  against  Nunez. 


96  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

The  insurrection  had  been  undertaken  for  the  pur- 
pose of  defending  the  1863  Constitution,  and  its  de- 
feat meant  the  destruction  of  departmental  independ- 
ence. As  the  logical  and  natural  result  of  his  victory, 
the  president  proclaimed  the  abolishment  of  the  con- 
stitution and  summoned  a  convention  to  adopt  a  new 
one.  Thenceforward,  until  his  death  ten  years  later, 
Rafael  Nufiez  and  his  political  ideas  were  supreme  in 
Colombia,  and  Panama  was  held  in  most  rigid  subjec- 
tion. The  old  United  States  of  Colombia  was  replaced 
by  a  Republic  of  Colombia,  one  and  indivisible;  the 
departments  became  mere  administrative  divisions 
whose  governors  were  appointed  from  Bogota;  the 
presidential  term  was  increased  to  six  years;  the 
radical  liberal  projects  were  abandoned;  the  clergy 
regained  many  of  their  privileges;  and  the  historical 
conservatives  continued  the  dominant  party. 

Panama  suffered  far  more  than  the  mountain  dis- 
tricts. Practically  she  was  allowed  no  voice  in  either 
her  own  or  general  affairs;  the  very  delegates  who 
nominally  represented  her  in  the  Constitutional  Con- 
vention of  1885  were  residents  of  Bogota  appointed 
by  Nunez;  military  rule  became  a  permanent  thing 
on  the  Isthmus;  all  officials  were  strangers  sent  from 
the  Andean  plateau;  and  the  million  dollars  of  taxes 
wrung  each  year  from  the  people  of  Panama  were 
spent  on  maintaining  the  soldiers  who  kept  them  in 
subjection.  In  January,  1895,  the  harassed  province 
broke  out  in  a  rebellion  which  was  suppressed  by  an 
overwhelming   force  of   Colombian  troops   in  April. 


EVENTS  LEADING  TO  INDEPENDENCE       97 

Meanwhile  in  Colombia  proper,  the  opposition  to 
the  ruling  clique  grew  stronger  and  stronger.  Perse- 
cution united  the  liberals,  and  they  began  organizing 
for  revolt  all  over  the  republic.  The  conservatives 
themselves  divided  into  two  parties,  one  of  which  op- 
posed the  administration.  Nunez  did  not  live  to  finish 
the  second  term  to  which  he  had  been  elected  in  1892, 
but  his  successor  managed  to  suppress  the  premature 
revolt  of  1895,  and  in  1898  Sanclemente  was  elected, 
the  opposition  refraining  from  going  to  the  polls. 
The  new  president  soon  found  his  position  very  diffi- 
cult, and,  unlike  Nunez,  was  unable  to  dominate  his 
own  party  and  hold  the  opposition  in  check.  The 
French  Canal  Company,  whose  concession,  granted 
in  1878,  would  expire  in  1904,  offered  a  million  dol- 
lars for  a  renewal,  desiring  to  recoup,  by  a  sale  to 
the  United  States,  a  part  of  the  two  hundred  million 
sunk  by  De  Lesseps.  Sanclemente's  government 
wished  to  accept,  but  the  opposition  and  even  the  con- 
servative congress  insisted  on  the  forfeiture  of  the 
French  rights.  The  administration  rapidly  lost  pres- 
tige, the  discontented  elements  saw  their  opportunity, 
and  the  long  brewing  storm  now  broke  on  the  hapless 
country.  The  liberals  hurriedly  completed  their  prepa- 
rations, and  in  the  fall  of  1899  a  civil  war  began — 
the  most  terrible  and  destructive  that  has  ever  devas- 
tated the  republic.  Before  it  ended  in  1902,  more  than 
two  hundred  battles  and  armed  encounters  had  been 
fought,  and  thirty  thousand  Colombians  slain.  The 
detailed  history  of  the  campaigns  has  not  yet  been 


98  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

written,  but  it  is  apparent  that  the  insurrectionists  at 
first  gained  many  successes.  The  president  declared 
martial  law,  suspending  the  functions  of  congress,  and 
the  extension  desired  by  the  French  Canal  Company 
was  granted  by  executive  decree.  But  the  pecuniary 
relief  thus  obtained  did  not  materially  help  the  floun- 
dering administration.  Sanclemente  became  a  mere 
figurehead  for  his  more  resolute  ministers,  and  in 
July,  1900,  the  vigorous  vice-president,  Marroquin, 
seized  power  by  a  coup  d'etat,  throwing  Sanclemente 
into  a  prison,  where  he  remained  until  his  death. 
Thereafter  the  war  against  the  rebels  was  prosecuted 
with  more  energy,  and  the  tide  turned  with  the  defeat 
of  an  army  of  Venezuelans,  eight  thousand  strong, 
which  had  invaded  the  eastern  provinces,  to  co-oper- 
ate with  the  insurrectionists. 

However,  the  liberals  were  still  strong  in  the  west 
and  north.  On  the  Isthmus  four  insurrections  had 
broken  out  from  October,  1899,  to  September,  1901, 
and  though  each  had  been  promptly  suppressed,  in 
1902  the  liberals  were  able  to  make  a  last  great  effort 
to  establish  themselves  in  Panama.  They  had  consid- 
erable forces  near  the  mouth  of  the  Magdalena,  and 
gunboats  on  the  Pacific.  The  secure  possession  of  the 
Isthmus  would  have  enabled  them  to  reinforce  this 
Magdalena  army,  cut  off  Marroquin's  troops  at  Agua 
Dulce,  near  Panama.  But  this  was  their  last  success. 
Marroquin  poured  reinforcements  into  Colon,  and 
though  the  American  admiral  at  first  refused  to  allow 
them  to  be  transported  over  the  railroad  to  Panama, 


EVENTS  LEADING  TO  INDEPENDENCE      99 

permission  was  granted  when  it  became  evident  that 
there  would  be  no  fighting  near  the  line.  News 
came  of  the  defeat  of  the  liberal  army  near  the 
Magdalena,  and  General  Herrera,  the  victor  at  Agua 
Dulce,  found  himself  isolated.  In  desperation  he  sent 
an  expedition  in  October,  which  surprised  and  cap- 
tured Colon,  but  French  and  American  marines  were 
promptly  landed  to  prevent  fighting  in  that  city.  The 
expedition  had  no  alternative  but  to  surrender,  and  a 
few  days  later  General  Herrera  with  the  main  body 
capitulated  on  the  Pacific  side. 

The  three  years  of  war  left  Colombia  in  frightful 
demoralization.  The  victorious  government  was  lit- 
tle better  off  than  the  defeated  liberals.  Commerce 
and  industry  had  been  prostrated ;  revenues  had  dwin- 
dled to  nothing;  the  paper  currency  was  worth  less 
than  one  per  cent.  The  exhaustion  of  its  adversaries, 
not  in  its  own  strength,  enabled  Marroquin's  govern- 
ment to  continue  in  power.  In  such  a  situation  the 
administration  welcomed  the  opportunity  which  now 
offered  of  renewing  the  building  of  the  Isthmian 
canal.  The  United  States  government  determined  to 
undertake  this  great  work  itself,  and  finally  decided  in 
favor  of  Panama  as  against  the  Nicaragua  route. 
Forty  million  dollars  was  agreed  upon  as  a  just  price 
for  the  work  already  done  by  the  French  company, 
and  nothing  remained  but  to  obtain  Colombia's  con- 
sent to  the  transfer.  The  civil  war  helped  to  delay  the 
negotiation  of  a  satisfactory  treaty,  but,  as  soon  as 
it  was  over,  the  Marroquin  administration  lost  little 


100  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

time  in  coming  to  an  agreement  with  the  United 
States.  Colombia  was  to  receive  a  bonus  of  ten  mil- 
lion dollars  for  consenting  to  the  transfer  and  en- 
larging the  terms  of  the  original  concession ;  her  sov- 
ereign rights  were  reserved  and  guaranteed,  although 
she  agreed  to  police  and  sanitary  control  of  the  canal 
strip  by  the  United  States. 

When  the  treaty  was  submitted  to  the  Colombian 
Senate  for  ratification,  opposition  developed  which  the 
administration  was  not  strong  enough  to  overcome. 
Among  the  politicians  at  Bogota,  the  opinion  was 
almost  universal  that  the  executive  should  have 
demanded  more.  The  Colombian  people  have  ever 
regarded  the  political  control  of  the  Isthmus  as  their 
most  valuable  national  heritage,  and  cherished  extrava- 
gant hopes  that  some  day  they  would  be  vastly  en- 
riched by  the  sale  or  rental  of  this  strategic  bit  of 
ground  for  its  natural  use  as  the  greatest  artery  of 
the  world's  commerce.  Many  now  insisted,  as  they 
had  done  in  1898,  on  enforcing  a  forfeiture  of  the 
French  rights,  or  at  least  on  receiving  a  proportion 
of  the  $40,000,000  to  be  paid  for  them.  It  was  also 
said  that  Americans  could  well  afford  a  larger  bonus, 
and  the  opponents  of  the  treaty  made  the  further  point 
that  the  agreement  was  unconstitutional  and  contained 
insufficient  guaranties  of  Colombian  sovereignty. 
Against  this  storm  the  feeble  administration  probably 
could  do  little  and  certainly  did  nothing.  The  Senate 
was  allowed  to  adjourn  without  ratifying  the  treaty, 
and  an  attempt  was  made  to  negotiate  a  new  one  pro- 


EVENTS  LEADING  TO  INDEPENDENCE     101 

viding  for  a  larger  bonus  and  more  stringent  guar- 
anties of  Colombian  sovereignty. 

The  United  States,  however,  absolutely  refused  to 
consider  any  other  terms  than  those  already  agreed 
upon,  and  the  civilized  world  saw  the  completion  of  an 
enterprise  promising  incalculable  benefits  to  mankind 
indefinitely  postponed  by  the  opposition  of  the  Andean 
provinces  whom  the  accidents  of  war  and  international 
politics  had  given  an  arbitrary  control  over  a  region 
with  which  they  had  no  natural  connection.  The  situa- 
tion was  particularly  hard  for  the  people  of  the  Isth- 
mus, whose  confident  hopes  were  now  disappointed  of 
at  last  receiving,  by  the  prosperity  which  would  follow 
the  building  of  the  canal,  some  compensation  for  the 
oppression  and  losses  they  had  suffered  during  the 
eighty  years  of  misrule  by  the  Bogota  oligarchies. 
Hardly  had  the  treaty  been  rejected  when  plotting  for 
a  declaration  of  independence  began.  The  resident 
population  was  unanimous,  and  good  grounds  existed 
for  believing  that  even  the  Colombian  garrison  would 
offer  no  resistance  unless  reinforcements  should  come 
from  Bogota.  In  case  of  an  armed  conflict  with 
Colombia,  the  people  of  Panama  could  count  on  the 
sympathy  of  all  America  and  Europe.  The  stockhold- 
ers of  the  French  Company  had  a  direct  pecuniary 
interest  in  their  success.  If  once  they  could  establish 
independence  and  a  de  facto  government,  Colombia 
could  not  deliver  an  effective  attack  without  violating 
the  neutrality  and  security  of  transit  guaranteed  to 
the  Isthmus  by  the  United  States.    Everything  pointed 


102  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

to  the  success  of  a  well-conducted  movement. 
Though  the  preparations  for  the  revolt  could  not 
be  concealed,  the  Bogota  government  took  no  effective 
measures  to  forestall  it.  Warned  that  trouble  was  im- 
pending, the  United  States  sent  ships  to  prevent  fight- 
ing that  might  interfere  with  transit.  The  new  repub- 
lic was  proclaimed  at  Panama  on  the  3d  of  November, 
1903.  The  Colombian  authorities  made  no  resistance ; 
the  garrison  surrendered  without  firing  a  shot;  and 
the  entire  population  acquiesced  in  the  appointment 
of  a  provisional  government,  pending  the  calling  of  a 
convention  and  the  adoption  of  a  constitution.  A  small 
force  of  Colombians  had  been  landed  at  Colon,  but  the 
revolution  at  Panama  found  it  still  on  the  Atlantic 
side.  On  November  4th  the  American  naval  com- 
mander refused  to  give  these  troops  permission  to 
use  the  railroad  for  warlike  purposes.  Because  the 
vital  portion  of  the  new  republic  is  virtually  neutral 
under  the  treaty  of  1846,  the  provisional  government 
having  established  itself  in  peaceable  possession,  was 
safe  from  external  attack.  The  useless  Colombian 
troops  at  Colon  either  joined  the  people  of  Panama  or 
retired.  The  inhabitants  of  Colon  and  the  outlying 
districts  immediately  sent  in  their  adherence,  and  the 
peace  of  the  whole  Isthmian  region  remained  un- 
broken. On  the  13th  of  November  the  United  States 
recognized  the  new  republic,  being  followed  by  France 
on  the  eighteenth,  and  then  by  all  other  nations  as 
soon  as  diplomatic  formalities  could  be  complied  with. 
Dr.  Manuel  Amador  Guerrero  was  elected  first  presi- 


EVENTS  LEADING  TO  INDEPENDENCE     103 

dent  of  the  Republic  of  Panama,  being  inaugurated 
on  February  19,  1904.  A  treaty  with  the  United 
States  for  the  building  of  the  canal  was  framed  on 
substantially  the  same  lines  as  the  one  which  had  been 
negotiated  with  Colombia.  By  the  end  of  February 
it  had  been  ratified  and  proclaimed,  and  the  United 
States  at  once  made  the  preparations  for  the  beginning 
of  the  work. 

That  Panama  has  a  great  future  before  her  is 
evident,  and  in  his  most  entertaining  manner  the  noted 
traveler,  Mr.  Frank  G.  Carpenter,  tells  us  something 
of  the  probable  future,  having  gained  his  information 
from  an  interview  with  the  president  of  the  Republic, 
Dr.  Pablo  Arosemena,  who  has  been  in  office  since 
the  death  (March  1,  1910)  of  President  Obaldia.  Mr. 
Carpenter,  in  a  recent  news  letter,  tells  the  story  of 
the  interview  as  follows : 

I  met  President  Arosemena  in  the  Isthmian  white  house, 
or,  as  it  is  known  here,  the  government  palace.  This  is  a  big, 
white,  two-story  building  of  Spanish  architecture.  It  sur- 
rounds a  patio  filled  with  palm  trees,  in  the  center  of  which 
is  a  pond  where  huge  turtles  roll  over  and  over  and  splash 
about  in  the  water. 

I  found  soldiers  on  guard  as  I  entered  the  palace  with  the 
American  minister,  Mr.  H.  Percival  Dodge,  and  we  saw  more 
soldiers  at  the  wide  stone  stairway  to  the  second  floor.  At 
the  top  of  the  stairway  we  waited  until  our  cards  were  sent 
in,  and  a  moment  later  were  ushered  into  the  long  narrow 
parlor  which  forms  the  audience  room  of  the  mansion.  This 
parlor  is  furnished  strangely  for  this  land  of  the  tropics. 
The  floor  is  covered  with  a  warm  velvet  carpet,  the  windows 
are  veiled  in  hot-looking  curtains,  and  the  gold-plated  furni- 
ture is  upholstered  and  hot.    At  each  end  of  the  room  is  a 


104  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

great  mirror  in  a  frame  of  gold  and  over  the  windows  hang 
lambrequins  from  gold  frames. 

We  waited  but  a  few  minutes,  when  the  president  entered. 
He  is  a  lean,  dark-faced,  black-eyed  man  of  medium  height, 
and  he  weighs,  I  should  judge,  about  150  pounds  light.  He  is 
seventy-four  years  old,  but  is  still  in  his  prime.  When  the 
minister  introduced  me  I  was  surprised  to  hear  the  president 
address  me  in  English.  He  speaks  that  tongue  fluently,  and 
it  was  in  English  that  our  conversation  was  held.  The  first 
part  of  it  related  to  the  political  situation,  and  I  asked  as  to 
whether  there  was  any  danger  of  a  revolution  in  case  the 
administration  candidate  should  be  defeated. 

"There  will  be  no  revolution  here,"  said  President  Arose- 
mena,  "and  the  day  of  revolution  is  fast  passing  away  as  far 
as  the  whole  of  Latin  America  is  concerned.  As  for  us 
Panamanians,  we  have  given  up  such  foolishness,  and  we 
expect  to  have  no  revolutions  for  all  time  to  come.  I  think 
the  same  will  be  the  case  at  no  distant  date  throughout  South 
America.  It  is  already  so  with  Peru  and  Chile.  We  have  now 
no  revolutions  in  Argentina  and  Brazil,  and  it  will  soon  be  so 
in  Colombia  and  Venezuela." 

"How  about  Central  America?"  I  asked. 

"That  eventually  will  be  the  case  with  Central  America, 
although  I  can  not  say  when.  The  people  of  some  of  those 
countries  have  had  so  many  revolutions  that  they  may  be  said 
to  have  acquired  the  revolution  habit,  and  it  will  be  some  time 
before  a  condition  of  permanent  peace  can  be  established 
there.  Nevertheless,  Central  America  is  improving,  although 
the  several  republics  composing  it  are  not  so  free  as  ours. 
The  Panamanians  have  more  liberty  of  speech.  For  instance, 
my  enemies  call  me  a  tyrant  and  I  make  no  reply.  If  one 
should  denounce  certain  of  the  presidents  of  the  republic 
north  of  us,  he  might  hear  from  his  denunciation  in  no 
favorable  way." 

The  conversation  here  turned  to  the  Panamanian  republic 
and  its  prospects,  and  President  Arosemena  said: 

"I  am  enthusiastic  over  the  future  of  Panama.  It  is  the 
baby  of  the  nations,  the  youngest  of  all  the  republics.  It  is  still 
in  its  swaddling  clothes,  and  is  just  beginning  to  grow.    Look 


EVENTS  LEADING  TO  INDEPENDENCE     105 

at  what  we  are  doing!  Take  the  city  of  Panama.  It  had 
only  12,000  people  nine  years  ago,  and  it  has  now  35,000.  It 
will  have  50,000  as  soon  as  the  canal  is  completed.  Colon,  at 
the  other  side  of  the  Isthmus,  had  5,000  population  when  you 
made  your  deal  with  the  French.  It  has  17,000  now,  and  we 
have  other  towns  which  have  greatly  increased." 

"But  will  not  this  population  drop  when  we  stop  our  work 
on  the  canal?"  I  asked. 

"I  think  not,"  replied  the  president.  "Col.  Goethals  says 
the  United  States  may  have  to  keep  soldiers  here  to  the  num- 
ber of  10,000,  and  also  that  it  will  take  2,000  additional  em- 
ployees to  run  the  canal.  These  people  will  spend  a  great 
deal.  Then  we  shall  have  the  tourist  travel.  That  will  stead- 
ily increase.  It  will  give  us  a  stream  of  travelers  passing 
through  and  dropping  dollars  into  Panama  and  Colon.  Why, 
take  your  own  people!  All  of  you  Americans  will  certainly 
want  to  come  to  see  the  canal.  There  are  ninety  millions  of 
you,  and  even  at  as  low  as  a  dollar  apiece,  that  would  give  us 
$90,000,000  to  start  with.  If  you  should  spend  $10  apiece,  the 
amount  would  soon  reach  a  billion." 

"But  can  you  accommodate  the  crowd?'* 

"Yes.  We  shall  have  big  hotels  for  the  tourists,"  said  Dr. 
Arosemena,  "and  the  tourist  travel  will  bring  in  a  great  deal. 
Paris  gets  a  thousand  million  francs  every  year  out  of  tour- 
ists, and  Switzerland  feeds  fat  upon  them.  There  is  no  reason 
why  we  should  not  do  likewise." 

"Do  you  not  think  that  the  Americans  will  have  cities  of 
their  own  here?" 

"Very  likely  so.  There  will  probably  be  a  great  business 
city  at  Balboa,  but  that  will  be  in  the  swamps,  and  while  it 
will  contain  the  warehouses  and  great  stores,  it  will  hardly 
be  fit  for  the  hotels  and  the  residences.  Panama  will  be  the 
Brooklyn,  the  residence  quarter,  and  we  shall  have  street-cars 
which  will  go  back  and  forth  in  five  minutes.  The  people  of 
Balboa  will  do  their  business  there  and  come  to  Panama  for 
the  night." 

"But  has  Panama  nothing  else  but  hotels  to  offer  to  the 
world?" 

"She  has  a  great  deal  more,"  said  the  president.     "The 


106  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

Panama  Republic  is  one  of  the  richest  countries  in  the  tropics, 
and  by  modern  sanitation  the  most  of  it  can  be  made  one  of 
the  most  healthy.  It  is  now  open  to  settlement,  and  we  will 
do  what  we  can  to  encourage  the  establishment  of  small  farms 
and  farmers.  We  are  offering  land  in  tracts  of  fifty  hectares, 
or  about  247  acres,  at  a  little  over  20  cents  an  acre,  and  200 
hectares  at  a  still  less  price  per  acre.  As  the  amount  of  land 
goes  up,  the  price  goes  down,  and  we  are  doing  everything  we 
can  to  encourage  development.  We  have  been  building  roads 
in  many  of  the  provinces,  and  we  now  have  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  500  miles  of  roads  and  over  sixty-one  bridges." 

"But  tell  me  something  about  your  lands,  Mr.  President," 
said  I.     "What  can  you  raise  on  them?" 

*'We  can  raise  all  sorts  of  tropical  fruits.  We  have  good 
lands  for  coffee  and  cacao.  Coffee  plantations  are  being  set 
out  in  some  places,  and  cacao  land  is  in  demand  in  the  coun- 
try about  Bocas  del  Toro.  There  are  immense  banana  estates 
there.  The  United  Fruit  Company  owns  thousands  of  acres, 
and  it  ships  millions  of  bunches  of  bananas  a  year.  The  most 
of  that  fruit  goes  to  the  United  States.  We  have  also  good 
soil  for  rubber,  and  rubber  plantations  are  being  set  out  by 
Americans  and  others.  Some  of  the  ex-employees  of  the 
canal  have  rubber  estates  which  are  already  in  bearing. 

"We  have  also  large  areas  of  fine  grazing  land,"  continued 
President  Arosemena.  "The  climate  is  such  that  the  cattle 
can  feed  out-of-doors  all  the  year  round,  and  we  have  three 
varieties  of  rich  grasses  to  fatten  them.  Take  the  province  of 
Chiriqui  in  the  northern  part  of  the  republic.  There  is  a 
region  there  known  as  the  Divila  country,  which  has  many 
square  miles  of  plains  covered  with  grass  which  is  dotted 
here  and  there  with  groves. 

"The  country  is  well  watered,  but  there  are  no  swamps, 
although  it  rains  almost  daily  for  about  eight  months  of  the 
year.  Still  the  rains  are  short  and  for  the  most  of  the  time 
the  weather  is  clear.  That  land  is  splendid  for  cattle,  and  it 
has  more  stock  than  all  the  rest  of  the  republic.  It  has  al- 
ready a  number  of  large  ranches,  and  there  is  room  for  many 
more.  I  doubt  whether  we  have  more  than  fifty  or  a  hundred 
thousand  head  of  stock  in  Panama  now,  whereas  I  have  seen 


EVENTS  LEADING  TO  INDEPENDENCE     107 

it  estimated  that  our  lands  would  sustain  5,000,000  head. 
When  the  canal  is  completed,  there  will  be  a  great  demand 
for  meat,  from  the  ships  passing  through,  and  it  ought  to  be 
supplied  by  the  Isthmus.  It  seems  to  me  there  should  be  a 
great  deal  of  money  in  cattle  raising.  As  it  is  now,  lean 
cattle  may  be  purchased  at  from  $15  to  $20  a  head.  After 
they  have  been  grazed  for  six  months  they  will  bring  $30  and 
upward." 

"What  opportunities  have  you  outside  of   farming?" 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  money  to  be  made  in  real  estate,'* 
said  the  president.  "With  the  completion  of  the  canal  there 
is  sure  to  be  a  demand  for  farm  lands  and  plantations  of 
various  kinds.  There  is  a  steady  rise  in  real  estate  values 
also  both  at  Panama  and  Colon,  I  have  property  here  which 
is  worth  ten  times  what  I  paid  for  it  a  few  years  ago,  and  I 
have  put  up  a  building  at  Colon  which  cost  me  only  $7,000 
and  which  has  been  netting  me  $700  per  month  in  rents. 
That  property  is  now  paying  for  the  building  every  year.  I 
know  of  buildings  here  in  Panama  which  are  doing  as  well. 
Rents  are  exceedingly  high,  and  we  have  a  number  of  men 
who  have  grown  rich  out  of  their  real  estate  deals.  We  have 
several  millionaires  and  some  of  them  have  incomes  of  over 
$50,000  a  year.  The  Panamanian  minister  at  Washington 
receives  something  like  $5,000  per  month  from  his  real  estate 
investments,  and  I  venture  that  M.  Espinoza  of  this  city  does 
equally  well. 

"And  then  there  is  a  great  deal  of  money  in  banking,"  con- 
tinued the  president.  "You  can  loan  here  all  the  money  you 
have  on  good  security,  at  eight  or  nine  per  cent.  The  old  rate 
of  interest  used  to  be  twenty-four  per  cent,  but  we  have  cut 
that  down  by  establishing  our  national  bank,  which  makes 
loans  on  real  estate  at  seven  per  cent,  and  on  jewelry  and 
other  collateral  at  nine  per  cent.  That  bank  has  a  million 
and  a  half  capital,  and  its  net  profits  last  year  were  $90,000." 

"What  is  Panama  doing  to  open  up  the  interior  of  the 
country  ?" 

"Not  as  much  as  we  could  wish,"  replied  the  president. 
"We  have  some  roads  and  we  expect  to  build  more.  We  have 
had  plans  for  railroads,  but  the  time  is  not  yet  ripe  to  build 


108  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

them.    All  that  will  come,  and  in  the  end  we  shall  be  a  thickly- 
populated  land." 

"How  about  your  mines?" 

"We  have  some  gold  mines  working  right  here  in  the 
central  part  of  the  Isthmus,  and  there  are  others  at  Darien. 
We  know  that  we  have  copper  and  other  minerals,  but  the 
country  has  not  been  thoroughly  prospected." 

"How  about  your  pearl  fisheries?" 

"They  have  produced  a  great  deal  in  the  past,  but  we  have 
not  been  taking  care  of  them  and  they  do  not  yield  what  they 
did.  I  have  been  interested  in  pearls  myself,  and  my  father 
sold  one  pearl  for  $4,500.  It  weighed  twenty-three  carats, 
and  was  of  a  beautiful  shape  and  fine  color.  That  pearl  would 
bring  $10,000  today.  I  think  if  we  should  let  the  pearl  fish- 
eries lie  still  for  a  while  and  keep  a  closed  season  for  fishing 
that  we  might  make  that  a  profitable  industry." 

"How  about  the  hidden  gold  of  Panama?  It  is  said  that 
you  have  islands  near  your  coasts  where  the  treasures  of  the 
Incas  are  buried  and  also  that  there  is  gold  under  old 
Panama." 

"That  is  the  stuff  that  dreams  are  made  of,''  replied  the 
president.  "Many  have  hunted  for  those  treasures,  and  have 
never  found  them.  We  have  now  made  a  road  to  old  Panama, 
and  it  is  probable  that  something  may  be  discovered  there." 

"Tell  me  something  about  your  trade  with  the  United 
States." 

"We  are  buying  more  of  you  than  of  any  other  nation, 
and  the  trade  steadily  increases.  It  might  pay  your  merchants 
to  establish  a  great  warehouse  here  for  the  display  of  Ameri- 
can goods.  There  will  be  a  continuous  stream  of  merchants 
passing  through  the  canal,  and  that  house  could  take  orders 
for  both  North  and  South  America.  As  it  is  now,  our 
foreign  commerce  amounts  to  $11,000,000  per  year,  and  of 
that  about  $5,750,000  goes  to  the  United  States.  Next  to  you, 
our  chief  consumer  is  Great  Britain,  and  after  that  come 
Germany,  France,  and  Italy.  As  to  our  exports,  the  most 
of  them  go  to  the  United  States.  Indeed,  you  buy  nearly 
all  that  we  sell." 

"Are  you  doing  much  in  education?" 


EVENTS  LEADING  TO  INDEPENDENCE     109 

"We  are  preparing  the  way.  We  have  established  some 
schools,  and  have  a  large  number  of  students  abroad  to  be 
prepared  for  teachers.  We  have  some  girls  studying  for  that 
purpose  in  Belgium,  and  we  have  also  scholarships  in  Chile, 
which  I  arranged  for  during  my  trip  there  last  year.  We 
have  also  built  a  national  educational  institute  here  at  a  cost 
of  about  $800,000." 

"How  about  the  health  of  the  Isthmus?  Do  you  think 
that  the  sanitation  methods  which  we  are  using  here  at 
Panama  could  be  extended  to  the  whole  country?" 

"Not  as  an  entirety,"  said  the  president.  "It  would  be  too 
expensive.  Nevertheless,  you  have  done  a  great  deal  for  the 
cities  of  Panama  and  Colon.  Indeed,  the  sanitary  commission 
is  the  most  absolute  ruler  we  have.  Every  one  has  to  obey  it, 
and  the  men  who  come  in  on  the  ships,  no  matter  whether 
they  be  presidents  of  other  countries,  American  ministers, 
or  our  own  officials,  are  kept  in  quarantine  for  three  days  if 
they  come  from  any  port  that  is  even  suspected  of  fever  or 
contagious  disease.  We  did  not  like  the  sanitation  methods 
at  first,  and  many  of  the  people  objected  to  having  their 
houses  inspected.  That  has  all  passed  away  now  and  we  are 
congratulating  ourselves  on  our  new  streets  with  good  water 
and  freedom  from  disease." 

"What  are  to  be  the  future  relations  of  Panama  and  the 
United  States?" 

"I  hope  they  will  always  remain  two  sister  republics." 

"Is  there  any  chance  that  Panama  will  be  annexed  to  the 
United  States?" 

"I  do  not  see  any  possibility  of  that  at  present,"  said 
Dr.  Arosemena.  "We  are  glad  to  have  you  as  our  great  and 
good  friend,  and  we  want  to  work  along  with  you  as  far  as 
we  can.  I  believe  that  our  people  would  prefer  to  be  inde- 
pendent." 

At  this  point  I  rose  to  go,  but  the  president  asked  me  to 
wait  a  moment  and  have  some  refreshments.  A  moment  later 
a  servant  brought  in  a  tray  of  champagne,  and  we  drank  to 
the  health  of  our  respective  countries  as  we  said  good-bye. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE    MOUNTAIN    REPUBLICS 


ON  the  western  slope  of  the  Andes  are  Colombia, 
Ecuador,  Peru,  Bolivia,  and  Chile,  which  have 
been  designated  as  the  Mountain  Republics.  Of  these. 
Colombia  is  the  northernmost  and  the  only  one  touch- 
ing both  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  Oceans.  In  a 
previous  chapter  we  have  gone  somewhat  into  detail 
regarding  the  area,  government,  and  resources  of  all 
the  republics,  and  as  for  their  history,  it  is  identical 
with  that  of  Peru,  all  of  the  republics  between  the 
Andes  and  the  Pacific  having  once  been  comprised 
under  that  name. 

Colombia  is  the  South  American  Persia  without 
Persia's  excuse.  It  is  a  rich  and  fertile  country,  not 
a  desert.  There  is  scarcely  anything  that  it  can  not 
produce  from  the  fruits  of  the  tropics  to  the  grains  of 
the  temperate  zones.  It  has  thousands  of  miles  of  low- 
lying  forests  and  pastures,  capable  of  raising  cattle 
for  the  Central  American  and  West  Indian  markets, 
and  bananas  for  the  United  States.  It  has  thousands 
of  square  miles  of  higher  valleys  and  mountain  pla- 
teaus, thousands  of  feet  high,  where  it  is  perpetual 
spring  time.  No  country  can  produce  better  coffee 
and  cocoa.  It  has  the  richest  emerald  mines  in  the 
world.  Its  total  output  of  gold  has  been  $639,000,000. 

110 


THE  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  111 

Asphalt,  rubber,  salt,  coal,  iron,  and  all  that  is  neces- 
sary for  the  industrial  independence  of  the  country 
and  for  the  large  export  trade  are  found  in  abundance. 
The  whole  country  could  be  a  garden.  Great  river 
systems  provide  means  of  communication  and  high- 
w2Lys  for  trade.  Steamboats  on  the  Magdalena  River 
can  run  from  the  sea  to  within  eighty  miles  of  the 
capital,  and  there  are  other  navigable  streams  tribu- 
tary to  the  Magdalena  or  running  into  the  Orinoco, 
the  Amazon,  the  Pacific  Ocean,  or  the  Caribbean  Sea. 
And  yet  this  rich  country  is  one  of  the  most  back- 
ward and  decrepit  nations  in  the  world.  She  has  a 
few  little  railroads,  the  longest  of  them  only  ninety- 
three  miles,  and  all  of  these  were  built  and  many  are 
owned  by  foreigners.  She  has  only  three  or  four  high- 
ways, and  two  of  them,  the  most  important  of  all, 
from  Cambao  and  Honda  to  Facatativa,  are  falling 
into  ruin.  One  of  them,  the  road  from  Honda,  has 
already  fallen.  It  never  was  a  real  road,  but  simply 
a  mountain  trail,  paved  in  parts,  for  the  use  of  saddle 
horses  and  pack-mules.  For  centuries  this  was  the 
only  road  to  the  capital  for  all  imports  and  for  the 
people  of  most  of  the  country.  It  was  probably  a 
better  road  a  century  ago  than  it  is  today,  when  the 
traveler  finds  it  only  a  series  of  rocky  inclines,  the 
stone  pavements  broken  up  and  the  road  for  the  fifty- 
six  miles  of  its  length,  until  it  joins  the  Cambao  road, 
worse  even  than  any  road  in  Persia.  There  is  an 
automobile  road  built  by  Reyes  as  one  of  his  spec- 
tacular achievements  covering  over  his  private  loot- 


112  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

ing,  running  eighty  miles  north  of  Bogota  over  the 
plain,  but  the  country  can  be  said  to  be  without  roads, 
more  without  them  than  Persia  and  Korea  were  ten 
years  ago. 

The  cause  of  Colombia's  special  backwardness  is 
not  the  character  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people. 
We  met  no  people  in  South  America  more  hearty  and 
amiable.  One  never  asks  help  in  vain.  In  some  South 
American  lands  there  is  a  great  deal  of  the  dourish- 
ness  of  the  Indian.  There  is  much  Indian  blood  in  the 
Colombian,  but  it  is  a  good-hearted,  friendly  blood. 
The  moral  conditions  are  the  same  as  elsewhere  in 
South  America.  The  control  of  marriage  by  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  and  the  use  of  this  control 
by  the  priests  as  a  source  of  income  to  the  church 
have  resulted,  as  the  priests  themselves  admit,  in  a 
failure  on  the  part  of  great  masses  of  the  popu- 
lation to  get  married.  Men  and  women  live  together 
with  no  marriage  ceremony.  Sometimes  the  relation- 
ship is  maintained,  but  the  very  nature  of  it  makes 
fidelity  too  rare.  In  spite  of  the  good  nature  of  the 
people  there  is  a  great  deal  of  want  and  suffering. 
In  some  sections  goiter  is  almost  universal,  and  there 
is  the  same  lack  of  medical  provision  which  is  found 
in  other  South  American  lands.  In  the  Bogota  Hos- 
pital, crowded  so  full  with  its  one  thousand  patients 
that  some  of  them  were  laid  on  mattresses  on  the 
floor,  we  were  informed  that  the  death  rate  both  in 
Bogota  and  in  the  country  was  abnormally,  high^ 
how  high  the  doctors  disagreed — and  that  in  Bogota 


THE  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  113 

with  one  hundred  thousand  people  there  were  one 
hundred  eighty  doctors  and  five  hundred  seventy 
in  the  whole  of  Colombia,  or  one  to  each  six  thou- 
sand, as  against  one  to  each  six  hundred  in  the  United 
States.  In  Colombia  also  we  saw  more  poverty  and 
suffering  than  anywhere  else  in  South  America.  In 
Honda  alone  one  afternoon  more  beggars  came  to  us 
as  we  sat  under  a  tree  in  front  of  the  hotel  after  the 
ride  down  from  Bogota,  than  we  had  seen  in  all  the 
rest  of  our  trip.  Colombia  is  the  South  American  land 
most  praised  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  for  its 
fidelity.  The  church  has  here  a  unique  control  and 
here  least  is  done  for  the  suffering  and  needy.  We 
did  not  hear  of  an  institution  of  any  kind  for  the 
blind,  for  the  cripple,  for  the  aged.  There  are  leper 
asylums,  but  the  state  has  founded  them.  The  women 
of  Colombia  are  even  more  burdened  than  those  of 
other  countries.  We  saw  women  with  pick  and  shovel 
working  on  the  highway.  The  porter  who  came  to 
take  our  bags  to  the  station  in  Bogota  was  a  woman. 
You  may  see  women  with  week-old  babies  folded  in 
their  breasts,  staggering  along  under  a  sack  of  coffee 
weighing  150  pounds,  or  a  load  of  merchandise.  The 
butchers  in  the  market  in  Bogota  were  women.  And 
I  think  one  could  find  no  sadder  faces  than  those  of 
the  women  in  the  Bogota  Hospital.  The  curse  of  any 
land  guilty  of  uncleanliness  and  untruth,  is  bound  to 
fall  heaviest  on  its  best  hearts,  the  hearts  of  the 
women.  But  Colombia  is  not  behind  the  other  South 
American  countries  because  the  people  are  immoral 


114  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

or  more  unworthy.  They  are  probably  of  about  the 
same  moraHty  and  they  are  certainly  more  indus- 
trious and  more  kindly  and  more  eager  than  many  of 
the  others. 

The  cause  of  Colombia's  special  backwardness  is 
twofold.  First,  is  the  character  of  the  governing 
class.  No  country,  unless  it  has  been  Venezuela  or 
Paraguay,  has  been  more  cursed  by  politicians,  men 
who  were  concerned  only  to  hold  office,  to  have  hands 
on  the  reins  of  government,  but  who  did  not  use  of- 
fice for  any  public  service  or  handle  the  reins  of  gov- 
ernment to  guide  the  nation  into  better  things.  Bogota 
is  full  of  people  who  live  on  the  state  and  talk  politics 
and  play  at  life.  Politics  to  them  means  holding  of- 
fice and  drawing  salary  and  talking  of  the  nation  and 
its  honor.  It  does  not  mean  the  development  of  its 
resources,  the  improvement  of  its  communications, 
the  education  of  its  children,  the  progress  of  its  in- 
dustries. Each  other  South  American  country  has 
had  its  men  of  the  Bogota  stamp,  but  contact  with  the 
outside  world,  the  incoming  of  foreign  capital,  truer 
ideals  of  education,  have  crowded  these  men  aside  or 
checked  them  by  the  creation  of  another  class  who 
are  engaged  in  the  real  work  of  the  world,  in  produ- 
cing wealth  and  promoting  progress. 

The  other  great  cause  of  the  special  backwardness 
of  Colombia  is  the  dominance  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  which  holds  the  land  in  a  grasp  which  she  has 
been  obliged  to  relax  in  other  South  American  coun- 
tries.    In  the  first  half  of  the  last  century  the  state 


THE  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  115 

asserted  for  itself  a  large  freedom.  It  took  over  many 
of  the  great  properties  of  the  church,  which  the  lat- 
ter had  acquired  by  its  political  character  and  put  them 
to  public  uses.  In  Bogota  the  postoffice,  some  of  the 
government  buildings,  the  public  printing  office,  the 
medical  school  and  the  hospital  are  all  old  convents.  In 
1888  the  church  came  back  into  power  through  a  con- 
cordat with  the  state.  Since  Ecuador  threw  off  the 
dominion  of  the  church  there  is  not  one  South  Ameri- 
can country  where  the  influence  of  Rome  is  so  power- 
ful as  in  Colombia.  The  archbishop  and  the  papal  dele- 
gate in  Bogota  are  the  most  conspicuous  figures  after 
the  president.  The  papal  delegate  is  the  head  of  the 
diplomatic  corps,  and  it  is  said  by  many  that  there  is 
nothing  which  the  church  desires  that  it  can  not  do.  The 
church  controls  education,  and  while  the  constitution 
proclaims  religious  liberty,  the  church  exercises  its 
authority  to  see  that  as  far  as  it  can  order  matters 
the  liberty  shall  not  be  exercised  by  the  people.  The 
mission  school  for  boys  in  Bogota  was  nearly  wrecked 
in  1909,  though  its  prospects  seemed  brighter  than  for 
some  years,  by  the  reissuance  of  a  letter  by  the  arch- 
bishop, first  sent  out  ten  years  ago,  in  which  he  warned 
the  people  against  the  heretics  who  had  come  into  the 
country,  naming  specifically  the  Presbyterians. 

The  Roman  Church  in  Colombia  has  been  a  reac- 
tionary and  obscurantist  influence  for  centuries.  At 
Cartagena,  the  best  port  of  Colombia  and  the  most 
picturesque  city  I  saw,  was  the  seat  of  the  inquisition, 
where  it  is  said  400.000  were  condemned  to  death,  and 


116  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

while  that  terror  has  long  since  passed  away,  the 
shadow  of  the  church  as  a  great  repressive,  deaden- 
ing power  has  remained.  The  people  have  not  been 
taught.  Peonage  has  endured  and  in  a  modified  form 
been  sanctioned  by  law.  The  machinery  of  the  church, 
it  is  charged,  has  been  used  in  the  interest  of  personal 
and  commercial  politics.  In  one  word,  the  fact  is  that 
one  of  the  best  countries  and  peoples  in  South  Amer- 
ica, and  the  one  most  docile  to  the  church  and  most 
under  its  control,  is  the  most  backward  and  destitute 
and  pitiful. 

Of  Ecuador,  the  "Report  of  Trade  Conditions  in 
Central  America  and  on  the  West  Coast  of  South 
America,"  issued  by  the  Department  of  Commerce  and 
Labor  in  Washington,  has  this  to  say: 

Ecuador  and  Colombia  together  may  be  regarded  as 
among  the  most  backward  of  the  South  American  States. 
Their  resources  are  undeveloped,  their  surplus  products  for 
export  are  far  below  the  proportion  which  might  be  expected 
from  their  population,  and  their  imports  are  correspondingly 
insignificant.  Their  importance  in  the  commercial  world  lies 
rather  in  the  possibility  of  future  development  than  in  their 
present  status.  Ecuador,  with  an  area  of  116,000  square 
miles  and  a  population  of  1,500,000,  exported  but  $11,520,000 
worth  of  goods  in  1904,  and  imported  to  the  value  of  only 
$7,670,000. 

The  reasons  for  Ecuador's  backwardness  are  given 
as  the  unhealthfulness  of  the  port  of  Guayaquil,  no- 
torious for  its  unsanitary  condition  as  a  pest  hole  of 
yellow  fever,  the  vexatious  government  regulations, 
and  the  revolutionary  spirit.     Instead  of  improving 


THE  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  117 

the  condition,  the  Republic  absorbed  the  appropriations 
for  the  Guayaquil  and  Quito  and  Machala  waterworks, 
the  parks  in  Quito,  and  public  roads,  for  the  payment 
of  current  expenses  of  administration.  Trade  condi- 
tions are  improving  and  things  are  looking  up  for 
Ecuador.  Cocoa  is  the  most  important  export  of  this 
Republic.  In  1908,  6,400,000  pounds  were  shipped,  of 
which  the  United  States  took  about  one-sixth.  The 
total  export  of  cocoa  in  1910  was  $7,896,057 ;  of  Pan- 
ama hats,  $1,258,575  worth  were  exported.  Forty 
million  pounds  of  rice  are  produced  annually,  but  this 
is  not  enough  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  home 
market. 

The  Montana,  or  forest  region  lying  on  the  east- 
ern slope  of  the  Andes  and  with  its  network  of  river 
basins  stretching  to  the  Amazon,  is  less  exploited  in 
the  Ecuadorian  than  in  the  Peruvian  territory.  The  rub- 
ber in  these  tropical  forests  will  be  secured  in  the  proc- 
ess of  time.  The  development  of  this  region  on  the 
part  of  Ecuador  is  not  remote.  But  there  must  be  means 
of  communication.  The  government,  realizing  this, 
decided  to  build  a  railway  from  Ambato,  on  the  Guay- 
aquil and  Quito  Railroad,  one  hundred  miles  to  the 
Curarey  River,  a  branch  of  the  Amazon  with  head- 
waters near  Iquitos  in  Peru.  This  line  will  enable 
that  district  to  export  its  rubber  through  Guayaquil 
instead  of  out  through  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  The 
railway  route  lies  east  of  the  Andes. 

Tobacco  is  grown  in  the  north  near  the  coast  for 
home  consumption.     Sugar-cane  is  cultivated  success- 


118  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

fully  on  the  nearer  border  of  the  Montana  and  also 
nearer  the  coast,  but  it  will  be  a  long  time  before 
Ecuador  exports  sugar  in  appreciable  quantities.  This 
may  be  less  true  of  cotton,  which  is  becoming  a  na- 
tional industry.  A  fine  quality  is  grown  in  the  north- 
ern districts,  of  which  Ibarra  is  the  center,  and  cot- 
ton flourishes  in  other  sections.  The  mills,  which  em- 
ploy the  cheap  labor  of  the  native  Indian  women, 
have  proved  successful,  and  they  find  a  profitable  home 
market,  though  it  will  be  many  years  before  the  mills 
of  the  New  England  States  will  be  seriously  hurt  by 
their  output. 

The  minerals  of  the  country  are  principally  in  the 
southern  zone,  though  there  are  rich  places  in  the 
rivers  of  the  north.  The  southern  province,  of  which 
Zaruma  is  the  center,  in  the  last  century  was  famous 
for  its  gold  mines,  and  it  is  still  known  as  El  Oro,  or 
the  gold  country.  In  late  years  little  has  been  done, 
though  the  quartz  veins  have  been  worked  intermit- 
tently and  in  some  of  the  streams  gold-washing  has 
been  carried  on.  Minerals  are  abundant  further  south 
in  the  district  of  which  Loja  is  the  center.  Some  cop- 
per is  found,  and  there  are  deposits  of  iron  and  an- 
thracite coal,  silver,  and  lead. 

In  proportion  to  its  size,  Ecuador,  though  sparsely 
settled,  is  as  well  inhabited  as  other  South  American 
countries.  The  population  is  very  largely  Indian  with 
the  usual  Spanish  intermixture.  The  total  number  of 
inhabitants  is  1,275,000.  The  whites  and  the  mestizos, 
or  mixed  bloods,  comprise  about  twenty-five  per  cent 


THE  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  119 

of  the  population.  The  central  plateau  easily  could 
sustain  an  agricultural  population  of  twice  that  num- 
ber. 

Of  recent  years  Ecuador  has  maintained  political 
equilibrium,  if  not  absolute  political  stability.  Presi- 
dent Alfaro  during  his  term  was  compelled  to  combat 
the  reactionaries  and  the  church  party,  but  the  pro- 
gram of  Liberal  measures  was  sustained.  The  great- 
est progress  that  has  been  made  is  toward  financial 
stability.  The  money  of  the  country  was  put  on  the 
gold  basis,  and  that  having  been  maintained  for  sev- 
eral years,  the  promise  of  its  continuance  is  encour- 
aging. The  standard  of  coinage  is  the  gold  condor, 
equal  to  the  English  sovereign  in  weight  and  fineness. 
The  common  circulating  medium  is  the  silver  sucre, 
ten  of  which  constitute  the  condor,  or  the  pound  ster- 
ling. The  Sucre  is  equal  to  48.66  cents.  Paper  money 
is  circulated,  but  the  outstanding  issue  is  not  very 
large.  There  are  two  banks  of  emission,  each  of 
which  has  a  capital  of  3,000,000  sucres. 

The  Ecuador  banks  do  a  profitable  business  in 
international  exchange.  The  Guayaquil  institutions 
regularly  pay  14  and  15  per  cent  dividends,  and  their 
deposits  are  constantly  on  the  increase. 

The  key  to  the  industrial  growth  of  Peru  and  to 
the  mastering  motives  of  her  national  policy  is  found 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  three  zones  into  which  the 
country  is  naturally  divided.  The  zones  of  the  Coast 
Region,  relatively  fifteen  hundred  miles  in  length,  va- 
rying in  width  from  twenty  to  eighty  miles,  and  ex- 


120  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

tending  from  the  foot  of  the  Coast  Range  to  the 
Pacific;  the  Sierra,  or  Cordilleras  of  the  Andes,  in- 
cluding the  vast  tablelands,  averaging  three  hundred 
miles  in  breadth;  and  the  misnamed  Montaiia,  or 
mountain  region,  actually  the  land  of  tropical  forest, 
and  plains  extending  from  the  eastern  slope  of  the 
Andes  to  the  Amazon  basins.  The  settlement  of  the 
boundary  disputes  with  Ecuador,  Colombia,  Brazil, 
and  Bolivia  have  reduced  Peru  by  500,000  square 
miles  of  territory,  which  Peru  claims  as  her  area  yet. 
The  wealth  of  this  vast  region  is  in  rubber  and  the 
varied  products  of  tropical  agriculture.  The  Sierra, 
in  the  future  as  in  the  past,  is  for  the  minerals,  with 
alpaca  wools  and  live-stock  as  an  agricultural  addition. 

The  Coast  Region  is  for  tropical  and  temperate 
products.  The  principal  ones, —  wheat,  corn,  oats; 
grapes  and  the  generality  of  fruit ;  rice,  tobacco,  sugar 
and  cotton.  Except  in  reference  to  the  two  great 
world  staples,  they  may  be  viewed  almost  solely  in 
the  light  of  domestic  consumption.  Sugar  and  cot- 
ton are  on  a  different  plane. 

Peruvian  cotton  production  can  not  become  large 
enough  to  affect  the  world's  markets,  yet  it  may  be  a 
gain  to  the  national  wealth  in  the  quantity  which  can 
be  raised  for  export  and  also  for  the  domestic  spin- 
dles. The  sands  of  Piura  which  stretch  from  the 
coast  at  Paita  back  to  the  Cordilleras,  have  in  them 
possibilities  that  are  yet  undreamed  of.  The  cotton 
tree  of  Piura  amazes  the  beholder  when  he  sees  it  in 
all  stages  of  production — in  bud,  in  fleecy  bloom,  and 


THE  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  121 

in  seed.  The  quality  surprises  the  expert.  It  is  finer 
than  the  finest  Egyptian  and  is  equal  to  certain  grades 
of  wool.  It  is  known  variously  as  vegetable  wool  and 
as  wool  cotton.  Irrigation  is  employed  to  a  limited 
extent.  One  ambitious  scheme  which  was  to  bring 
60,000  acres  under  cultivation  was  stopped  for  lack 
of  capital. 

Cotton  of  good  quality  is  raised  in  the  central 
district  of  Lima  and  in  the  southern  region  of  Pisco 
and  lea.  While  rains  are  not  common  in  these  dis- 
tricts, the  fogs  at  certain  seasons  are  heavy  enough 
to  be  accounted  rainfall,  and  the  moisture  in  the  air 
is  precipitated  in  quantities  sufficient  for  the  product, 
taken  with  the  somewhat  restricted  means  of  irriga- 
tion employed  on  the  plantations.  The  cotton  plant, 
no  longer  the  cotton  tree  as  in  Piura,  is  met  with  for 
fifty  miles  north  of  Lima,  and  especially  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Ancon.  The  plantations  lie  under  and 
between  the  overlapping  sand-hills,  side  by  side  with 
fields  of  sugar-cane. 

Taken  as  a  whole,  the  advantages  of  Peru  as  a 
cotton-producing  country  are  a  suitable  climate,  the 
alluvial  soil  of  the  valleys,  the  facilities  for  irrigating 
the  sandy  plains,  and  a  sufficiency  of  fairly  cheap  la- 
bor. The  price  of  the  land  is  a  fraction  of  the  value 
of  similar  soil  in  Egypt.  An  official  publication  of  the 
government  places  the  yield  per  acre  at  630  pounds, 
of  which  250  pounds  is  lint  cotton. 

Peru  has  produced  sugar  for  many  years,  and  the 
industry  has  had  the  usual  ups  and  downs,  but  it  has 


122  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

capabilities  of  increase.  About  125,000  acres  were 
under  cultivation  in  1905,  and  2,500  persons  found 
employment  on  the  plantations  and  in  the  mills.  Both 
natives  and  Chinese  coolies  form  the  field  hands.  The 
production  for  export  in  recent  years  has  varied  from 
100,000  to  125,000  tons,  and  it  is  gradually  advancing 
to  200,000. 

The  treasure  beds  of  the  Andes,  as  they  have  been 
exploited  for  centuries,  are  in  the  Sierra,  though  the 
output  of  the  precious  metals  in  the  Coast  Region 
has  been  great.  The  Department  of  Ancachs,  which 
comes  down  to  the  sea,  has  enormous  mineral  wealth. 
The  district  lies  within  the  two  Andean  chains  which 
parallel  the  Pacific,  and  which  are  known  as  the 
White  Cordillera  and  the  Black  Cordillera,  the  latter 
being  nearest  the  coast.  Silver,  gold,  and  copper  are 
the  chief  sources  of  mineral  wealth.  In  the  Cerro  de 
Pasco  district,  since  control  was  secured  by  the  Amer- 
ican syndicate,  the  copper  output  is  more  important 
than  the  silver  production. 

The  petroleum  deposits  are  in  the  north  between 
Tumbez  and  Paita,  around  Tolara,  Zorritos,  and 
Cape  Blanco.  Several  of  the  English  companies  were 
not  very  successful,  owing  to  bad  management.  The 
supply  which  is  now  obtained  is  utilized  as  fuel  on  the 
railways  and  in  many  of  the  smelters.  The  value  of 
the  annual  production  is  approximately  $750,000. 

Live-stock  or  grazing  may  be  said  to  be  one  of  the 
industries  of  the  Sierra,  but  in  relation  to  the  foreign 
commerce  of  the  country  it  does  not  promise  to  be  an 


THE  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  123 

appreciable  source  of  national  gain.  Sheep-raising — 
alpacas,  vicunas — is  of  the  highest  plains.  With  the 
increase  in  the  population  at  these  altitudes  through 
mining  settlements,  the  flocks  are  not  likely  to  grow 
extensively.  The  vicuna,  not  being  domesticated,  is 
more  apt  to  recede  before  the  advance  of  civilization. 
Such  growth  as  the  live-stock  industry  may  have  in 
the  Cordillera  region  may  be  looked  upon  chiefly  as 
a  means  of  supplying  local  consumption.  The  exports 
of  hides  and  wool,  while  not  necessarily  stationary, 
do  not  indicate  a  heavy  increase. 

The  world  does  not  yet  fully  grasp  the  possibili- 
ties and  limitations  of  the  Amazon  rubber  produc- 
tion, but  the  Peruvian  government  has  a  proper  con- 
ception of  it  and  has  enacted  legislation  both  to  secure 
the  development  of  the  gum  forests  and  to  preserve 
them  from  heedless  destruction.  The  rubber  region 
within  Peruvian  territory  has  its  main  extension  in 
the  department  of  Loreto  and  in  the  provinces  of  that 
interior  country,  but  the  area  reaches  almost  to  Cuzco 
and  Lake  Titicaca.  All  of  it  is  within  the  Montana 
or  forest  region.  In  the  Loreto  region  the  popula- 
tion does  not  exceed  100,000  inhabitants,  if  it  reaches 
that  number.  The  productive  forests  lie  along  the 
banks  of  the  rivers.  The  jehe  is  obtained  from  inci- 
sions made  in  the  tree,  while  the  caucho  is  the  sap 
that  is  had  from  cutting  down  the  tree  which  pro- 
duces it  and  then  extracting  the  milk. 

The  Peruvian  government,  having  adopted  effect- 
ive measures  for  the  protection  of  the  rubber  forests 


124  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

from  prodigal  destruction,  also  has  sought  to  aid  the 
various  private  enterprises  by  supervising  the  supply 
of  labor.  This  is  a  much  more  difficult  problem.  The 
native  Indians  and  the  cholo  are  hardly  numerous 
enough  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  industry  in  its  present 
state,  and  both  persuasion  and  compulsion  are  exerted 
in  order  to  force  them  to  work.  This  condition  of 
affairs  has  recently  been  exploited  at  great  length 
through  the  public  press  and  investigations  have 
proved  that  much  cruelty  is  practiced.  The  ultimate 
solution  of  the  problem  and  the  full  exploitation  of 
the  rubber  wealth  of  Peru  must  rest  on  the  coloniza- 
tion of  the  trans-Andean  region,  and  a  gradual  trans- 
formation into  tropical  agriculture  of  the  districts 
which  are  not  unfit  for  habitation  and  cultivation  by 
the  annual  high-water  overflows  of  the  Amazon  af- 
fluents. But  for  this  river  region,  as  for  the  other 
regions  of  Peru,  there  is  no  artificial  aid  which  can 
compare  with  the  Panama  Canal. 

The  Great  Central  Plateau,  where  is  located  the 
Republic  of  Bolivia,  because  of  its  mineral  riches, 
has  been  called  by  a  noted  geographer  a  gold  table 
with  silver  legs.  Once  the  bed  of  a  vast  inland  sea, 
the  tableland  now  forms  the  Titicaca  basin  and  lies 
between  the  Oriental  and  Occidental  Cordilleras.  Its 
surface  is  broken  by  many  conical  hills  and  small 
Sierras,  supposedly  the  result  of  volcanic  eruptions, 
yet  it  comes  within  the  definition  of  level  country  as 
level  country  is  understood  in  the  Andine  regions. 

Life  in  Bolivia  is  a  primitive  pastoral  existence, 


THE  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  125 

and  while  not  a  joyous  existence,  does  not  appear  to 
be  too  somber.  The  religious  festivals  here  are  cele 
brated  with  undeviating  punctuality.  No  matter  how 
small  the  collection  of  huts,  somewhere  among  them 
is  a  church,  and  each  group  of  cabins  has  its  own 
cure.  I  remarked  everywhere  the  grass  cross  over 
the  dwellings.  It  was  very  rare  to  find  a  hut  without 
this  symbolism.  It  seemed  to  indicate  great  devout- 
ness,  but  what  I  have  already  seen  of  the  cures  and 
their  flocks  made  me  doubt  whether  this  was  the  cor- 
rect explanation.  The  cross,  I  was  told,  was  blessed 
by  the  priest,  and  then  it  kept  out  the  rain,  which  at 
times  is  very  heavy.  One  old  man,  who  after  pre- 
tending that  he  knew  nothing  but  the  Aymara  tongue, 
had  talked  very  well  in  Spanish,  was  asked  if  the 
crosses  really  did  keep  out  the  rain.  He  replied 
gravely,  "Yes,  if  the  roof  is  a  good  one." 

Among  the  native  population  of  Bolivia  the  cholos 
are  easily  distinguished.  They  are  the  migratory 
classes  who  live  in  the  larger  towns  and  some  of  whom 
work  in  the  mines.  Many  of  them  are  freighters. 
They  have  a  distinctive  dress, — the  loose  cotton 
trouser,  widening  below  the  knee  and  with  a  V-strip 
of  different  cloth  in  either  side.  They  are  a  political 
power,  for  while  they  take  little  part  in  the  elections, 
they  are  not  unready  to  share  in  a  disturbance. 

The  aboriginal  native  yet  preserves  many  customs 
distinct  from  the  cholo.  He  wears  a  cap  or  gorro, 
which  was  worn  in  the  time  of  the  Incas,  and  he  con- 
tents himself  with  a  blanket  instead  of  trousers  if  he 


126  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

can  not  afford  the  latter.  The  pure-blood  Indians 
are  the  best  for  the  freight  caravans  where  the  llamas 
are  employed,  for  they  can  manage  those  whimsical 
beasts  of  burden  as  no  one  else  can.  The  llama  feeds 
as  it  goes  along,  and  a  born  manager  of  animals  is 
needed  to  handle  a  tropa,  or  drove  of  them,  and  keep 
them  moving  in  regular  order.  The  life  of  the 
freighter  is  a  hard  one,  tramping  all  day  and  at  night 
sleeping  in  the  corral  with  the  beasts. 

The  Indian  woman  in  Bolivia  occupies  a  plane 
on  equality  with  the  man.  She  has  no  lord  and  mas- 
ter, as  has  the  American  Indian  woman  in  the  noble 
red  man  of  the  West.  She  works,  but  he  also  must 
work.  She  accompanies  him  with  the  pack  trains,  all 
the  while  that  she  is  trudging  along  twirling  her 
spools  and  winding  the  wool  into  yarn.  It  is  rare  to 
see  an  Indian  woman  without  her  spools  unless  she 
is  weaving  at  the  loom.  Walking  and  talking,  gossip- 
ing and  scolding,  shouting  at  the  llamas,  tramping 
over  the  sharpest  mountain  passes  or  plunging  down 
into  the  gorges,  she  manages  to  keep  the  spool  always 
twirling.  It  is  a  most  peculiar  process,  and  would 
drive  a  small  boy  who  has  a  notion  of  spinning  a  top 
on  the  end  of  his  finger  wild  with  emulation,  though 
he  hardly  would  be  able  to  imitate  the  process. 

Mfarriage  bonds  among  the  Indians  are  not  loose 
ties.  In  all  the  settled  communities  where  the  little 
church  has  been  planted,  the  priest  sees  that  the  cere- 
mony is  performed,  for  it  means  a  fee  to  him.  But 
when  the  man  wanders  away  for  work  and  is  gone 


THE  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  127 

for  years,  as  sometimes  happens,  it  is  no  interruption 
to  the  family  bond  that  on  his  return  a  brood  of 
children  greet  him.  He  resumes  the  matrimonial  rela- 
tion and  accepts  the  children  without  question. 

There  is  a  prevalent  delusion  that  in  these  alti- 
tudes the  birth  rate  is  very  low,  and,  moreover,  that 
many  of  the  children  come  into  the  world  deaf  or  lose 
the  sense  of  hearing  soon  after  birth.  While  the 
families  are  not  so  large  as  in  the  tropics  or  lower 
altitudes,  they  are  numerous  enough,  and  it  is  said 
that  the  report  about  deafness  and  the  excessive  rate 
of  infant  mortality  does  not  bear  the  scrutiny  of  sci- 
entific investigation. 

Bolivia  is  called  the  Mexico  of  South  America,  and 
her  mines  have  yielded  precious  metals  for  hundreds 
of  years.  Not  only  gold,  silver,  copper  and  iron  are 
her  heritage,  but  that  rarest  of  all  minerals,  tin,  is 
found  there.  Bolivia  was  the  casket  of  gems  held  in 
pawn  by  the  Spanish  Crown.  She  poured  the  riches  of 
prodigal  Mother  Nature  into  the  lap  of  the  mother 
country. 

Of  the  world's  total  tin  output,  say  100,000  tons, 
the  Bolivian  production  under  the  present  conditions 
may  be  placed  at  from  9,000  to  10,000  tons,  or  more 
than  equal  that  of  Cornwall  and  Australia  combined. 
Since  the  United  States  consumes  43  per  cent  of  the 
entire  production  of  tin,  the  importance  of  the  devel- 
opment of  the  deposits  in  Bolivia  and  of  the  transpor- 
tation facilities  should  be  appreciated. 

Besides   its  mineral  productions,   Bolivia   is  also 


128  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

rich  in  agricultural  resources,  and  it  is  this  possession 
of  varied  resources  that  gives  it  the  name  of  the 
Mexico  of  South  America. 

Chile  ranks  second  to  Brazil  in  its  enterprise  and 
progressiveness,  and  has  many  features  similar  to  that 
Republic  and  to  the  Argentine.  And  yet  its  similari- 
ties are  more  in  commercial  progressiveness  and  in- 
dustry, while  the  contrasts  between  the  two  countries 
in  their  physical  conditions  are  markedly  noticeable. 
One  lies  almost  wholly  within  the  tropics;  the  other 
almost  wholly  in  the  temperate  zone.  One  is  as  wide 
as  it  is  long,  and  the  other  is  a  thin  strip  one  hundred 
or  so  miles  broad,  stretched  along  the  coast  for  2,500 
miles.  The  area  of  Brazil  in  round  numbers  is 
3,220,000  square  miles,  and  of  Chile  300,000,  about 
one-eleventh  the  size  of  Brazil.  The  wealth  is  agri- 
cultural, while  of  the  750  square  kilometers  of  Chile 
only  20,000  are  cultivated  lands;  100,000  are  semi- 
arid,  200,000  forest,  and  430,000  sterile.  Yet  Chile's 
wealth  is  in  these  sterile  lands,  embracing  fifty-seven 
per  cent  of  the  territory,  for  there  are  the  great  nitrate 
beds,  and  the  varied  mineral  veins.  In  Brazil  every- 
thing is  spread  out,  expansive ;  in  Chile,  drawn  in  and 
compacted.  Brazil  is  so  big  that  it  does  not  know  it- 
self. Distant  provinces  are  like  small  independent 
governments.  Chile  is  highly  centralized,  with  all  its 
activities  focussed  in  the  capital  and  ordered  by  a 
small  class  of  men.  The  Brazilian  is  placid  and  tran- 
quil ;  the  Chilean  energetic  and  enduring.  "By  reason 
or  by  force,"  is  the  motto  stamped  on  Chilean  coins. 


THE  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  129 

"Progress  and  order"  are  the  words  on  the  flag  of 
Brazil.  In  Brazil  the  population  is  a  composite  mix- 
ture with  a  large  immigration  and  a  strong  African 
element.  In  Chile  it  is  largely  homogeneous,  with  a 
negligible  immigration  and  no  negro  element  what- 
ever. The  fundamental  problems  are  closely  akin  in 
the  two  countries,  but  the  contrasts  serve  to  give  an 
edge  to  the  facts. 

Chile  is  made  up  climatically  of  at  least  three 
countries.  (1)  There  is  the  southern  section,  reach- 
ing roughly  from  Cape  Horn  to  Valdivia,  a  land  of 
forest  and  rain  and  storm.  In  this  section  are  the 
sheep-lands  of  Patagonia,  Magallanes,  and  Terra  del 
Fuego.  In  the  province  of  Magallanes  or  Magellan, 
there  is  an  area  larger  than  the  state  of  New  York, 
wind-swept  and  fog-covered,  but  well  adapted  to 
sheep  pasture.  There  are  now  millions  of  sheep  here, 
and  besides  the  receipts  for  wool,  mutton  is  the  great 
staple  of  export.  In  1905,  the  shipments  from  Chile 
amounted  to  75,000  frozen  carcasses  that  were  shipped 
from  Punta  Arenas.  In  1908,  one  plant  just  east 
of  Punta  Arenas  froze  and  shipped  196,000  sheep. 
(2)  The  real  Chile  lies  between  Valdivia  and  San- 
tiago. Four-fifths  of  the  population  live  in  this  cen- 
tral section.  It  is  the  cultivated  section,  though  there 
is  much  waste  land  even  here.  In  the  provinces  of 
this  section  the  population  varies  from  five  to  forty- 
seven  per  square  kilometer.  The  average  would  be 
near  twenty.  It  is  full  of  cities  and  towns  and  vil- 
lages,  readily   accessible,   railroads   running  up   and 


130  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

down  and  to  and  fro  across  it,  and  all  parts  not 
reached  by  rail  are  possible  of  an  access  which  would 
be  deemed  very  easy  in  Bahia  or  Persia.  This  section 
is  one  long  valley,  with  subordinate  valleys,  covering 
a  region  probably  500  by  100  miles,  perhaps  a  little 
more  than  this,  perhaps  a  little  less.  The  southern 
half  of  this  section,  from  Valdivia  to  Concepcion,  is 
still  frontier.  The  remnants  of  the  Araucanian 
Indians,  a  race  whom  the  Spaniards  could  not 
conquer,  live  in  the  midst  of  this  southern  half. 
(3)  The  rest  of  Chile  is  the  dry  land  to  the  north, 
from  Santiago  and  Valparaiso,  latitude  33°,  to  Tacna, 
at  the  northern  boundary  at  18°.  At  Valdivia  it  rains 
172  days  a  year,  and  the  rainfall  is  2841.1  m.m.  At 
Santiago  it  rains  31  days,  and  the  rainfall  is  264  m.m. 
At  Antofagasta  and  Iquique  it  never  rains  at  all.  The 
nitrate  and  borax  are  piled  in  the  open  with  no  fear 
even  of  a  shower,  and  the  shops  display  no  umbrellas. 
Here  in  the  north  among  the  nitrate  officinas  and  at 
the  copper  mines,  an  unstable  population  comes  and 
goes,  with  more  money  than  in  the  south,  and  with 
the  freedom  of  opinion  of  such  a  moving  company 
detached  from  old  moorings. 

The  great  curse  of  Chile  is  alcoholism.  In  San- 
tiago, a  city  with  a  population  of  332,724,  it  was  found 
recently,  when  the  municipality  took  up  the  matter, 
that  there  were  six  thousand  places  where  liquor  was 
sold,  and  in  Valparaiso,  we  were  told,  there  was  one 
saloon  to  every  twenty-four  men.  Mr.  Akers,  in  A 
History  of  South  America,  1854-1004,  says  that  Val- 


THE  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  131 

paraiso,  with  a  population  of  140,000,  shows  six  hun- 
dred more  cases  of  drunkenness  reported  to  the  poHce 
than  in  all  London,  with  five  million  souls.  Drink  has 
nearly  wiped  out  the  Indians.  The  land  is  cursed  with 
drink,  and  foreigners  are  manufacturing  it,  or  a  good 
part  of  it. 

The  general  hygienic  conditions  also  are  appalling. 
Smallpox  is  practically  endemic  in  Valparaiso  and 
Santiago.  There  were  many  deaths  daily  when  we 
were  in  Santiago,  and  smallpox  sufferers  would  be 
seen  even  on  the  streets  or  on  the  street-cars,  and  the 
pest-house  was  in  constant  use.  The  conventicles,  or 
tenements,  in  a  land  where  all  such  houses  are  only 
one  story  high  and  there  is  no  excuse  for  congestion, 
are  simply  breeding-places  for  disease  and  killing- 
grounds  for  little  children.  Open  sewers  run  down 
the  uncovered  gutters  before  the  long  rows  of  sunless 
rooms.  Seventy-five  or  eighty  per  cent  of  the  chil- 
dren die  under  two  years  of  age,  and  the  general  rate 
of  mortality  is  nearly  double  that  of  Europe.  Well- 
informed  men  declare  that  the  population  is  stationary. 
The  census  reports,  which  show  a  population  in  1875 
of  2,075,991,  in  1885  of  2,527,300,  in  1895  of  2,712,- 
145,  and  in  1907  of  3,249,279,  do  not  confirm  this  im- 
pression of  stagnancy,  but  the  ablest  and  best-in- 
formed men  recognize  the  evil  of  the  national  suicide 
through  alcoholism  and  dirt,  the  uncleanness  of  the 
houses  and  the  murderous  ignorance  of  the  care  of 
little  children.  Property  under  $2,000  is  not  taxed, 
and  on  property  above  that  the  maximum  .ax  rate  is 


132  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

three  per  mille,  or  about  one-tenth  of  what  we  pay  in 
many  communities  in  the  United  States.  There  is 
none  of  that  spirit  toward  public  interests  which  makes 
their  tax  bills  the  most  grateful  expenditure  of  many 
Americans. 

Nevertheless  it  is  a  wonderful  little  republic,  pa- 
triotic to  the  last  fiber,  with  many  capable  and  public- 
spirited  men,  but  without  the  political  or  moral  spirit 
in  the  mass  of  the  nation  capable  of  sustaining  repre- 
sentative institutions  or  creating  a  progressive  state.^ 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   PEOPLE   AND  THEIR  INCREASE 

IN  the  times  of  the  Incas  the  territory  which  is  now 
Peru  supported  a  dense  population.  The  vestiges 
which  remain  of  the  intensive  cultivation  of  the  land 
show  that  it  must  have  sustained  a  very  large  number 
of  inhabitants.  The  population  extended  from  the 
Sierra  and  its  sides  down  to  the  coast,  and  took  little 
account  of  the  forest  region  stretching  to  the  Amazon. 
The  enumeration  made  by  the  Spanish  officials  in  1793 
has  little  value  as  a  basis  of  estimating  the  increase, 
because  it  was  not  limited  to  the  present  Peru.  It  is 
interesting  only  as  showing  that  out  of  a  total  of 
1,077,000  inhabitants  there  were  618,000  Indians, 
241,000  mestizos,  136,000  Spaniards,  and  82,000 
negroes  and  mulattoes  Another  estimate  made  at  that 
period  was  of  1,250,000  persons. 

It  is  difficult  to  figure  out  that  the  population  of 
Peru  at  the  end  of  1905  exceeded  3,000,000  to  3,250,- 
000,  though  an  estimate  of  4,000,000  was  attributed  to 
the  Geographical  Society  of  Lima  a  few  years  ago. 
The  last  census  was  taken  in  1876.  It  gave  a  total 
of  2,673,000  persons.  The  enumeration  admittedly 
was  deficient,  and  an  open  question  was  whether  the 
semi-civilized  tribes  of  the  trans-Andine  region  had 
been  underestimated  or  overestimated.    In  subsequent 

133 


134  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

years  the  province  of  Tarapaca  was  ceded  to  Chile, 
and  Peru  suffered  not  only  the  losses' caused  by  war 
with  that  country,  but  also  from  the  complete  indus- 
trial prostration  which  supervened  and  from  the  in- 
testine struggles  of  the  revolutionary  factions. 

Only  within  very  recent  years  a  basis  of  normal 
growth  of  population  may  be  said  to  exist,  and,  with 
reference  to  the  natural  increase,  the  high  rate  of  in- 
fant mortality,  both  in  the  cities  and  in  the  Sierra, 
has  to  be  kept  in  mind.  A  long  period  of  comfortable 
existence  and  of  hygienic  education  must  elapse  before 
this  mortality  will  be  sensibly  diminished.  In  many 
communities  the  birth  rate  and  the  death  rate  are 
evenly  balanced,  while  there  are  districts  in  which 
the  grave  claims  more  than  the  rude  cradle. 

By  the  national  census  of  1876  Lima  had  101,000 
inhabitants.  In  November,  1903,  a  municipal  count 
fixed  the  population  at  131,000.  Lima  has  received  the 
cream  of  the  immigration  in  recent  years,  and  has 
drawn  to  itself  all  the  floating  elements.  The  smaller 
coast  cities  have  shown  no  such  growth,  while  in  the 
interior  the  towns  appear  almost  stationary  as  to  their 
inhabitants.  If  the  rate  of  increase  were  30  per  cent 
for  the  whole  country,  as  with  Lima,  and  if  the  census 
of  1876  could  be  accepted  as  a  safe  basis  of  calcula- 
tion, the  total  population  today  would  be  approxi- 
mately 3,5000,000.  The  notable  increase  of  Peru's 
foreign  trade  in  recent  years  is  evidence  of  improved 
consumptive  capacity,  due  to  industrial  prosperity, 
rather  than  of  an  increased  number  of  consumers.    It 


THE  PEOPLE  AND  THEIR  INCREASE      135 

came  too  swiftly  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  growth  in 
population,  and  therefore  does  not  support  the  theory 
of  upward  of  3,500,000  inhabitants. 

I  have  taken  into  account  the  statement  of  travel- 
ers in  the  interior,  who  have  found  the  people  more 
thickly  distributed  than  they  had  thought.  Two  young 
Americans,  Messrs.  Whitehead  and  Peachy,  who  in 
1902  traveled  through  northern  Peru  to  the  Amazon, 
encountered  a  relatively  dense  population.  The  engi- 
neers, who  in  1895  made  the  Intercontinental  Railway 
Survey  from  the  border  of  Ecuador  to  Cuzco,  calcu- 
lated the  number  of  inhabitants  along  the  route  to  be 
482,000,  substantially  in  agreement  with  the  national 
census  and  with  no  signs  of  a  marked  increase.  The 
location  was  through  the  Sierra  and  directly  on  the  line 
of  the  most  populous  Andine  towns.  Engineers  for 
private  companies  who  made  a  reconnaissance  of  a 
route  along  the  left  bank  of  the  Maranon,  were  sur- 
prised to  find  every  little  stretch  of  plain  or  valley 
between  the  glaciers  occupied  and  cultivated  by  an 
Indian  family,  yet  when  they  came  to  estimate  the 
aggregate  of  the  inhabitants,  the  total  was  not  a  large 
one.  This  inter-Andine  population  may  be  numerous 
enough  to  justify  the  belief  that  the  census  of  thirty 
years  ago  was  not  wide  of  the  mark,  but  it  is  impos- 
sible to  find  grounds  for  the  assumption  of  an  increase 
of  30  per  cent  since  then.  The  population  of  Peru 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Panama  Canal  epoch  reason- 
ably may  be  placed  at  3,250,000. 

In  the  enumeration  of  1876  the  estimate  was,  that 


136  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

of  the  inhabitants  57  per  cent  were  pure  Indian,  23 
per  cent  mestizos,  and,  except  for  a  fraction  of  ne- 
groes, the  remaining  20  per  cent  was  Caucasian,  chiefly 
Spanish.  The  aboriginal  proportion  is  now  smaller 
than  it  was  thirty  years  ago,  since  European  immigra- 
tion has  added  to  the  white  population,  and  the  mixed 
blood  also  has  been  augmented. 

There  is  no  more  fascinating  history  than  that  of 
the  Quichuas,  the  aboriginal  population  of  Peru  which 
still  survives.  The  distinctions  are  yet  marked  be- 
tween this  basic  race  and  the  races  which  were  sub- 
jected, such  as  the  Yuncas,  who  dwelt  in  the  northern 
part  and  along  the  coast  and  whose  language  is  still 
spoken  by  their  descendants.  Some  of  the  tribes  along 
the  shores  of  Lake  Titicaca  are  not  of  pure  Quichua 
descent,  being  sprung  from  the  rival  race  of  the  Aym- 
aras,  while  in  the  forest  region  the  Chunchos  and  oth- 
ers of  the  uncivilized  tribes  have  little  of  the  Quichua 
traditions  and  customs  and  speak  dialects  of  their  own. 
But  the  great  mass  of  the  population  of  Peru  today  is 
Quichua.  The  Spanish  and  other  intermixtures  which 
have  produced  the  cholos,  or  half-breeds,  have  had 
four  centuries  to  work  out  the  blood  mingling,  and  the 
cholo  in  every  community  is  easily  distinguishable 
from  the  pure  Quichua. 

The  Quichua  is  of  the  soil.  Under  the  Incas  the 
communal  system  of  land  cultivation  prevailed,  and  the 
natives,  even  in  the  loftiest  recesses  of  the  mountains, 
were  agriculturists.  They  found  means  to  irrigate  the 
most  barren  of  spots.    On  the  plains  and  in  the  val- 


THE  PEOPLE  AND  THEIR  INCREASE       137 

leys  they  cultivated  the  land.  The  fondness  for  the 
freedom  of  the  country  still  survives,  and  many  of 
them  prefer  this  life  to  being  grouped  in  villages. 

On  some  of  the  great  haciendas  the  crops  are  ap- 
portioned on  shares  almost  as  in  the  times  of  the 
Incas.  The  natives  are  born  shepherds,  and  the  pas- 
toral life  suits  them.  In  the  Cordilleras,  wherever  there 
is  a  pass  or  a  valley,  the  cabins  of  the  Indians  are 
scattered  about  as  thickly  as  the  producing  qualities 
of  the  land  will  permit. 

Much  of  the  work  in  the  mines  is  done  by  the 
cholos  or  mestizos.  These  also  are  the  freighters  who 
handle  the  droves  of  llamas,  burros,  and  mules  that 
bring  the  ore  from  the  mines  and  take  back  the  sup- 
plies. On  the  coast  the  population  might  be  called 
chiefly  cholo,  for  here  the  intercourse  with  other  races 
has  made  the  conditions  different  from  those  in  the 
Sierra. 

In  the  forest  region  the  tribal  customs  are  observed 
almost  as  before  the  Spaniards  came.  Many  of  the 
tribes  are  still  restricted  to  bows  and  arrows,  and  as 
they  are  hostile  to  the  government  and  accept  its  rule 
unwillingly,  the  authorities  take  pains  to  see  that  they 
are  not  encouraged  in  procuring  fire-arms  and  learning 
the  use  of  modern  weapons.  The  marriage  relation  is 
primitive,  but  the  traditions  are  rigidly  maintained. 
An  Englishman  who  had  spent  some  years  in  the  basin 
of  the  Ucayali  told  me  that  in  one  tribe  polyandry 
was  practiced.  An  epidemic  of  smallpox  had  left  more 
men  than  women.    The  owner  of  an  hacienda  on  the 


138  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

edge  of  the  forest  region  gave  me  an  account  of  the 
marriage  customs  which  had  prevailed  immemorially. 
One  instance  which  had  come  to  his  attention  was  of  a 
girl  of  nine  married  to  a  boy  of  eleven.  When  the 
child-wife  was  eleven  years  old,  she  was  a  mother. 
The  gentleman  had  verified  this  incident  himself  and 
had  no  question  of  the  age  of  the  husband  and  wife. 

The  native  is  deeply  attached  to  his  surroundings 
and  does  not  take  readily  to  labor  elsewhere.  The 
climate  has  something  to  do  with  this  unwillingness 
to  move.  It  has  been  found  by  experiment  that  the 
inhabitants  on  the  punas,  or  tablelands  5,000  feet  above 
the  sea-level,  do  not  work  well  when  taken  up  another 
5,000  feet.  They  are  not  only  homesick;  they  suffer 
real  physical  illness.  It  is  the  same  with  those  brought 
down  from  the  lower  plains.  Alcohol  is  the  worst 
drawback  to  their  physical  well-being  and  moral  ad- 
vancement. The  coca  leaf,  the  essential  principle  of 
cocaine,  which  they  use  as  a  food,  is  far  less  respon- 
sible for  their  lack  of  physical  stamina  than  cane  rum. 

In  many  of  the  villages  of  Peru  which  I  visited  I 
formed  an  impression  that  the  natives  were  further 
advanced  than  in  similar  villages  in  Bolivia  and  Chile. 
There  was  more  cleanliness,  more  evidence  of  good 
order  and  of  wise  local  administration.  They  are  a 
brooding,  solitude-loving  race,  though  not  altogether 
spiritless.  How  far  they  still  preserve  the  traditions 
'  and  sorrow  over  the  Incas  I  do  not  know,  but  their 
gentle  resistance  makes  it  more  difficult  to  impose 
civilization  on  them  than  would  be  sullen  opposition. 


THE  PEOPLE  AND  THEIR  INCREASE      139 

While  the  army  is  distasteful  to  the  Indian  popu- 
lation, and  while  they  evade  the  conscription  wherever 
possible,  it  is  one  of  the  strongest  civilizing  forces. 
The  discipline  is  good,  and  the  change  of  environment 
also  is  advantageous.  Obedience  has  been  so  fixed  a 
habit  of  the  natives  since  the  Spanish  conquest  that 
they  never  think  of  questioning  authority.  As  to  the 
degree  of  superstition  which  is  mingled  with  the  nomi- 
nal adhesion  given  by  the  Indian  population  to  the 
church,  I  do  not  profess  to  judge. 

The  Peruvian  government  seeks  to  enforce  a  good 
school  system,  and  in  the  large  towns  and  villages  with 
some  success.  But  on  the  part  of  the  mass  of  the 
Quichuas  there  is  still  inextinguishable  hostility  to 
learning  Spanish,  not  less  effective  because  it  is  pass- 
ive. The  suggestion  has  been  made  that  the  authori- 
ties provide  a  system  of  primary  schools  where 
Quichua  shall  be  the  language  and  shall  be  taught  sys- 
tematically. It  is  the  lingua  general,  or  common 
speech,  of  a  large  majority  of  the  inhabitants. 

At  Huanuco,  where  a  German  agricultural  colony 
was  established  forty  or  fifty  years  ago,  the  sons  of 
the  early  colonists  still  speak  German,  and  many  of 
the  Quichuas  in  the  neighborhood  have  acquired  a 
smattering  of  that  language.  Apparently  they  dis- 
tinguished between  the  tongue  of  the  conqueror  and 
another  strange  tongue. 

The  negro  element  in  the  population  in  Peru  is 
sometimes  remarked  by  strangers.  They  are  told  that 
it  has  become  thoroughly  intermixed  with  the  native 


140  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

race.  In  the  early  days  of  the  viceroys,  when  African 
slavery  was  exploited  by  the  two  great  Christian  pow- 
ers, England  and  Spain,  many  Africans  were  brought 
to  Peru.  It  is  thence  that  the  name  Zambo,  or  Sambo, 
came.  They  are  yet  called  Sambos.  Though  the 
Spanish  and  Indian  mixture  is  said  to  be  thorough, 
there  seems  to  be  much  of  the  African  racial  identity 
still  preserved. 

The  Chinese  coolies  were  brought  to  Peru  in  the 
fifties.  They  still  work  in  the  sugar  plantations  and 
the  rice  fields  and  a  few  of  them  also  in  the  cotton 
fields.  The  coolie  in  the  second  generation,  however, 
becomes  a  store-keeper  or  a  property  owner.  On 
some  of  the  sugar  estates  the  Chinese  steward  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years  leases  the  plantation  and  later 
becomes  the  owner.  There  are  many  wealthy  China- 
men in  Peru,  and  not  all  of  them  made  their  money 
as  merchants  at  Lima.  The  policy  of  the  government 
is  not  to  encourage  coolie  immigration. 

For  the  industrial  and  political  future  of  which 
Peru  dreams  there  must  be  immigration  as  well  as 
natural  increase  of  the  present  native  population- 
The  potter's  clay  is  not  all  at  hand.  Some  of  it  must 
be  brought  in.  This  immigration  will  be  along  three 
lines,  which  may  be  called  topographical  or  geograph- 
ical,— first,  on  the  coast;  second,  in  the  Sierra;  third, 
in  the  trans-Andine  country  and  the  vast  basin  of  the 
rivers  that  feed  the  Amazon.  A  phenomenal  growth  in 
the  latter  region  during  the  present  generation  is  not 
probable,  though  it  has  enormous  colonization  possi- 


THE  PEOPLE  AND  THEIR  INCREASE       141 

bilities  which  gradually  will  be  utilized,  especially  with 
the  opening  up  of  the  means  of  communication.  Some 
of  them,  too,  are  European  or  Caucasian  possibilities, 
for  the  exploration  of  numerous  scientists  and  their 
studies  have  shown  that  the  European  can  live  and 
thrive  in  these  regions.  These  climatic  and  similar 
observations  may  be  had  from  a  score  of  books  giving 
experiences  of  individuals. 

In  the  development  of  the  mines  Peru  necessarily 
must  add  to  the  population  of  the  Sierra.  Mining 
labor  now  is  hardly  sufficient,  and  the  preference  of 
the  natives  for  agriculture  and  for  service  as  freight- 
ers makes  the  problem  one  of  increasing  difficulty. 
The  wages  in  the  mines  are  good,  varying  according 
to  locality.  In  the  Sierra  day  labor  can  be  had  for 
about  half  a  sol,  which  is  equivalent  to  twenty-five 
cents  gold.  The  American  syndicate,  in  building  the 
Cerro  de  Pasco  Railway,  paid  the  natives  a  sol,  or 
fifty  cents,  and  got  satisfactory  returns.  But  for  the 
mining  development  of  the  future,  miners  from  Spain 
and  Italy  should  supply  the  deficiency  that  will  exist 
so  long  as  sole  reliance  is  placed  on  the  natives.  They 
may  come  in  considerable  numbers. 

Irrigation  of  the  region  between  the  Sierra  and  the  / 
coast  is  assured,  and  this  is  going  to  furnish  the  basis^ 
for  the  largest  and  earliest  increase  in  population.  A 
portion  of  this  increase  should  also  come  from  Italy 
and  Spain  and  perhaps  also  from  Germany,  for  the 
Germans  are  highly  successful  in  semi-tropical  agricul- 
ture.   The  Italians  have  been  very  successful  in  Peru 


142  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

in  retail  trade  and  in  some  of  the  mechanical  employ- 
ments, but  the  conditions  also  are  favorable  for  them 
in  agricultural  pursuits.  The  vineyards  in  the  region 
around  Pisco  and  lea  seem  to  afford  an  especially  in- 
viting field  for  them.  By  the  time  the  Panama  Canal 
is  open  the  big  trans-Atlantic  liners  from  Genoa  and 
Naples  which  now  come  to  Colon  should  be  bringing  a 
full  quota  of  Italian  immigrants  through  the  waterway 
to  the  Peruvian  ports. 

The  government  has  enacted  liberal  legislation  pro- 
viding for  immigration  and  colonization,  but  it  does 
not  follow  the  theory  of  government-aided  colonies. 
Its  course  is  sound.  It  grants  land  to  private  enter- 
prises for  colonization,  and  in  the  industrial  plans 
which  are  now  a  part  of  its  political  policy  there  is  a 
certainty  of  an  increased  population  to  be  drawn  from 
abroad.  An  old  law  authorizes  an  annual  appropria- 
tion of  50,000  for  encouraging  immigration,  and  the 
passage  of  immigrants  may  be  paid,  but  this  is  the 
limit  of  state  aid. 

Colonization  plans  by  private  enterprises  received 
a  check  a  few  years  ago,  when  the  Peruvian  Corpora- 
tion abandoned  its  efforts.  Of  the  total  grant  of 
2,750,000  acres  in  the  region  of  the  rivers  Perene  and 
Ene  and  the  Chanchamayo  valley,  more  than  a  million 
acres  were  set  aside  for  immediate  peopling.  The 
corporation  began  to  attract  settlers  to  the  lands,  but 
the  movement  was  feeble  and  was  not  sustained.  The 
complaint  made  was  that  instead  of  inviting  fresh  and 
virile  European  immigration  it  drew  the  dregs  from 


THE  PEOPLE  AND  THEIR  INCREASE       143 

neighboring  countries,  taking  colonists  who  had  proved 
their  own  worthlessness  in  the  places  where  they  first 
settled.  The  experiment  was  still  another  instance  of 
ignorant  London  directors  and  incompetent  manage- 
ment. 

Many  of  the  earlier  colonists  in  this  district  went 
into  coffee-growing  with  fair  success.  The  climates 
the  soil,  the  slopes  of  the  Cordilleras,  all  were  favor- 
able. Good  crops  were  raised  and  found  a  profitable 
market.  But  this  market  was  obtained  at  the  period 
when  Brazil  was  changing  from  the  empire  to  the 
republic,  and  when  through  that  and  subsequent  dis- 
turbances the  supply  to  meet  the  world's  demand  was 
interrupted.  When  the  Brazilian  crop  became  abnor- 
mal in  its  productiveness,  weighting  the  price  down 
below  the  level  of  profitable  production,  coffee-raising 
no  longer  was  business  for  the  colonists  of  Peru- 
They  themselves  did  not  clearly  perceive  the  cause 
of  their  distress.  Many  of  them,  instead  of  turning 
to  other  products,  got  discouraged  and  went  away. 
But  merely  because  of  this  failure  there  is  no  ground 
to  believe  that  in  the  future  colonizing  movements  in 
this  region,  intelligently  directed  by  the  Peruvian 
Corporation  or  by  any  private  company,  will  not  suc- 
ceed. The  climatic  and  soil  conditions  are  inviting, 
and  the  only  question  is  the  means  of  utilizing  these 
gifts  of  nature.  The  entire  Pichis  zone  is  favorable 
to  European  colonization.  When  it  is  connected  with 
the  Pacific  by  the  extension  of  the  present  railroad 
to  Port  Bermudez  or  some  other  river  point,  its  colo- 


144  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

nization  capabilities  will  be  appreciated;  for  the  lack 
of  access  has  been  the  drawback.  This  rich  region  lies 
within  three  hundred  miles  of  the  coast. 

A  similar  observation  may  be  made  concerning  the 
northern  districts.  From  any  one  of  half  a  dozen 
little  seaports  the  valleys  of  the  Maranon  and  its  tribu- 
taries are  less  than  two  hundred  miles  distant.  But 
the  Continental  Divide  lies  between,  and  this  mass  of 
mountain  wall  must  be  pierced  by  the  railroad.  Once 
this  is  done,  the  immigration  possibilities  of  northern 
Peru  will  develop  rapidly. 

For  all  this  there  must  be  faith,  and  resolution,  and 
definite  measures.  It  is  not  a  question  of  settling  a 
new  land,  for  Peru  is  an  old,  old  country.  Nor  is  it 
the  problem  of  reconstructing  the  ancient  civilization 
of  the  Incas,  or  the  civilization  which  twentieth-cen- 
tury iconoclastic  antiquarians  charge  the  Incas  with 
stealing  from  other  races.  In  its  economic  aspect  the 
matter  is  simply  one  of  getting  more  people  into  a 
country  which  has  plenty  of  room  for  them. 

During  a  stay  in  Lima,  I  spent  an  afternoon  with 
Rev.  Dr.  Wood,  a  Methodist  Episcopal  missionary, 
who  had  been  in  South  America  for  thirty  years,  and 
who  had  made  the  most  discriminating  study  of  social 
conditions  of  any  Yankee  living  in  the  Andes.  I  came 
away  permeated  with  some  of  Dr.  Wood's  enthusiasm 
and,  I  hope,  with  some  of  his  devout  faith.  The 
South  American  continent,  he  declared,  has  been  held 
in  reserve  by  Providence  for  a  time  when  the  popula- 
tion of  other  countries  would  press  for  room  and  for 


THE  PEOPLE  AND  THEIR  INCREASE      145 

means  of  subsistence.  The  present  Peru,  he  thinks, 
is  easily  capable  of  supporting  20,000,000  inhabitants 
in  conditions  of  life  and  comfort  similar  to  those  en- 
joyed by  dwellers  in  the  Alps  and  the  Appenines. 

But  if  in  the  years  pending  the  completion  of  the 
Panama  Canal,  Peru  by  natural  increase  and  by  immi- 
gration can  add  1,000,000  to  her  population,  that  mod- 
est addition  will  determine  her  industrial  future.  A 
million  more  people  during  the  next  ten  years  will 
mean  an  extra  2,000,000  in  the  decade  that  follows. 
The  horizon  does  not  need  to  be  extended  farther.* 


CHAPTER  X 
Peru's  growth  and  government 

WHEN  Honorable  James  Bryce  wanted  an  apt 
illustration  of  the  numerous  election^  in  the 
United  States,  he  compared  them  in  their  frequency 
to  revolutions  in  Peru.  The  comparison  was  not  un- 
just. Civil  wars  have  occurred  almost  as  often.  The 
bloodiest  drama  was  enacted  as  recently  as  1895.  In 
that  year  the  streets  of  Lima  were  choked  with  corpses 
and  ran  with  blood  of  brother  shed  by  brother.  No 
one  today  can  give  a  rational  cause  for  it.  A  few 
years  earlier,  when  Peru  yet  was  prostrate  at  the  feet 
of  Chile,  there  were  revolutions  and  counter-revolu- 
tions. 

But  the  seeds  of  revolution  do  run  out  after  cen- 
turies. The  soil  grows  barren.  The  soil  in  this  case 
is  the  mass  of  aboriginal  population,  the  Indians  and 
the  mixed  bloods,  who  have  known  only  blindly  to  fol- 
low one  chief  or  another.  Slowly  they  learned  that  in 
the  revolvmg  of  rulers  they  were  no  better  off.  An 
English  monarchist  repeated  to  me  the  story  of  an  old 
Indian  at  Chosica.  He  was  bent  with  age  and  hard 
work,  was  in  rags  and  was  a  beggar.  This  was  after 
the  Spanish  power  had  been  broken  and  independence 
established.  He  came  one  day  to  the  group  of  political 
chiefs  who  were  then  in  control  and  were  controlling 

146 


PERU'S  GROWTH  AND  GOVERNMENT       147 

for  the  benefit  of  themselves.  They  were  eulogizing 
Liberty  and  the  glory  of  having  done  with  kingships. 
The  old  fellow  listened  and  then  meekly  remarked: 
**But,  sirs,  it  is  all  the  same.  Under  the  viceroy  I 
was  a  beggar.  Under  the  Republic  and  your  Honors 
I  am  a  beggar.  I  don't  see  that  Liberty  means  any- 
thing to  old  Juan  Martinez." 

For  the  bulk  of  the  inhabitants  it  has  not  been  quite 
so  bad,  because  even  the  republican  semblance  of  gov- 
ernment has  been  better  training  for  them  than  the 
monarchical  rule.  Yet  in  the  uprisings  and  counter- 
uprisings  they  were  like  the  old  beggar.  Whatever 
dictator  was  in  and  was  promulgating  high-sounding 
proclamations  of  liberty,  they  were  no  better  off  than 
under  his  predecessor.  They  followed  one  cacique  or 
another,  killed  one  another  at  his  behest,  and  then  set- 
tled back  in  the  old  way.  But  of  late  years  the  con- 
dition of  the  mass  of  the  Indian  and  mixed  population 
has  improved.  I  take  this  statement  on  the  evidence 
of  discriminating  foreigners,  and  not  as  a  conclusion 
from  my  own  observations,  which  were  made  within 
too  short  a  period  to  afford  a  basis  for  comparison.  It 
is  the  testimony  of  the  Europeans  that  more  than  one 
ambitious  leader  has  been  willing  to  lead  a  revolt  when 
his  faction  lost,  but  he  could  not  get  followers  or 
dupes,  and  therefore  he  acquiesced. 

It  is  true  also  that  the  educated  classes  have  be- 
come more  stable  and  have  put  forth  a  stronger  influ- 
ence against  political  disturbances.  Yet  over-credit 
should  not  be  given  them,  for  the  hot  Spanish  blood 


148  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

in  all  of  them  has  not  been  brought  down  to  an  even 
temperature.  This  was  very  forcibly  impressed  on  me 
during  the  spring  of  1903,  when  the  presidential  elec- 
tion was  pending.  Sefior  Miguel  Candamo,  for  sev- 
eral years  president  of  the  Lima  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, was  the  only  candidate  who  had  a  political 
party  back  of  him.  He  had  been  an  influential  sup- 
porter of  the  liberal  administration  of  President 
Romafia.  He  was  the  choice  of  the  Constitutionalists 
and  Civilistas.  There  was  another  aspirant  whose 
canvass  was  entirely  personal.  Besides  the  Civilistas 
the  only  important  political  organization  was  the  Popu- 
lar Democrats,  who  were  supposed  to  represent  the 
popular  element,  or  the  masses.  They  nominated  no 
candidate,  but  they  sought  to  control  the  Congress. 

One  of  their  leaders,  Senor  A ,  calmly  ex- 
plained to  me  that  they  would  get  control  of  Congress, 
would  declare  the  election  null  and  void,  and  substi- 
tute their  own  man  for  Sefior  Candamo.     He  looked 

on  this  as  perfectly  legitimate  politics.     Sefior  A 

had  been  educated  in  the  United  States  in  order  to 
have  the  benefit  of  free  government,  had  spent  his 
youth  there,  and  after  returning  to  Peru  had  held  im- 
portant public  offices.  When  he  was  explaining  to  me 
the  plans  of  his  faction,  the  future  of  Peru  hinged  on 
the  peaceful  succession  to  President  Romafia. 

After  Sefior  Candamo  had  been  chosen  for  a  fac- 
tion which  had  not  even  proposed  an  opposing  candi- 
date, to  seek  to  prevent  his  inauguration  and  put  in 
its  own  man — who  never,  had  made  even  a  pretense  of 


PERU'S  GROWTH  AND  GOVERNMENT       149 

seeking  the  suffrage  of  the  electors — meant  to  precipi- 
tate, if  not  actual  revolution,  a  condition  fully  as  bad. 
It  meant  to  destroy  the  confidence  of  foreign  capital, 
and  to  take  from  Peru  the  prestige  which  she  slowly 
was  regaining  among  South  American  nations.  It 
was  inconceivable  how  a  patriotic  Peruvian  could  har- 
bor a  purpose  of  encouraging  such  a  condition,  and 

yet  Senor  A •  was  intensely  patriotic  and  ready  to 

fight  for  his  country. 

The  election  was  held,  and  some  of  the  hot-heads, 

among  whom  was   Sefior  A ,   did  undertake  to 

question  the  result,  and  for  a  brief  period  the  fate  of 
Peru  trembled  in  the  balance.  It  was  settled  by  the 
stern  displeasure  of  General  Nicolas  de  Pierola,  a 
former  president,  himself  the  chief  actor  in  many 
revolutions  and  at  that  time  the  leader  of  the  Popular 
Democratic  party.  He  told  his  radical  followers  that 
insurrection  against  the  government  would  be  treason 
to  the  nation,  and  Senor  Candamo  was  inaugurated 
with  his  support. 

Another  test  came  when,  a  few  months  after  Presi- 
dent Candamo's  inauguration,  he  was  taken  ill  and  in 
May,  1904,  died.  He  had  been  conspicuously  and  hon- 
orably identified  with  the  history  of  Peru,  had  the  con- 
fidence of  the  whole  people,  and  especially  of  the  com- 
mercial classes  both  foreign  and  native.  His  program 
had  been  purely  a  civilian  one.  All  the  political  parties 
had  been  harmonized  and  were  supporters  of  his  ad- 
ministration. His  death  inevitably  brought  on  a  con- 
test for  the  succession.    In  this  struggle  there  was  to 


150  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

be  an  alignment  of  political  organizations.  Again 
Peru  was  approaching  a  crisis  which  would  test  her 
stability,  and  show  the  world  whether  confidence  could 
be  placed  that  the  progressive  career  on  which  she  had 
entered  would  be  uninterrupted  by  domestic  dissen- 
sions. 

Under  the  Peruvian  constitution  a  first  and  a  sec- 
ond vice-president  are  chosen,  but  the  vice-president 
has  not  exactly  similar  functions  to  that  official  in  the 
United  States.  The  first  vice-president,  in  the  absence 
of  the  president  or  his  temporary  retirement  from  offi- 
cial cares,  discharges  the  responsibilities  of  the  execu- 
tive office,  and  in  the  absence  or  disability  of  the  first- 
vice-president  the  second  one  acts.  But  in  the  event 
of  the  death  of  the  Executive,  the  vice-president  fills 
the  office  only  until  an  election  can  be  called  and  a  suc- 
cessor chosen.  It  happened  in  1903  that  Senor  Acorta, 
who  was  chosen  first  vice-president,  died  before  the 
inauguration.  On  the  death  of  President  Candamo, 
Sefior  Serapio  Calderon,  the  second  vice-president, 
discharged  the  executive  functions  and  issued  the  call 
for  the  election  of  a  new  chief  magistrate.  If  the 
emergency  had  been  pressing,  he  could  have  called  the 
Congress  in  extra  session.  After  some  delay  nomina- 
tions were  made  by  the  opposing  political  parties. 
The  Civilistas  united  on  Senor  Jose  Pardo  as  their 
choice,  and  the  Constitutionalists  endorsed  him,  he  be- 
coming the  candidate  of  this  coalition.  The  Popular 
Democrats  and  a  political  group  known  as  the  Lib- 
erals named  General  Nicolas  de  Pierola,  the  former 


PERU'S  GROWTH  AND  GOVERNMENT       151 

president,  as  their  candidate.  His  career  in  the  stormy 
periods  of  Peruvian  history  for  forty  years  had  made 
him  a  leading  character  and  he  had  strong  influence 
with  the  masses.  On  his  retirement  from  the  presi- 
dency he  had  become  the  head  of  a  business  enterprise 
in  Lima.  His  old  opponent,  General  Caceres,  one  of 
the  Constitutionalists,  supported  Sefior  Pardo. 

Jose  Pardo  is  a  member  of  a  distinguished  family, 
one  of  several  brothers  influential  in  the  business  and 
politics  of  the  country,  sons  of  the  president  who 
founded  the  Civil  party  in  1872.  He  was  educated  for 
the  law,  and  had  been  in  the  diplomatic  service  in 
Europe,  but  had  returned  to  Peru  and  was  occupied 
as  a  sugar-planter  when  Miguel  Candamo  was  chosen 
president.  He  was  one  of  Senor  Candamo's  active 
supporters,  and  entered  the  latter's  cabinet  as  Minister 
of  Foreign  Affairs.  He  was  generally  recognized 
as  the  coming  leader  of  the  Civilistas,  and  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  group  of  young  men  who  were  aggres- 
sive in  their  advocacy  of  civilian  policies.  His  speech 
in  accepting  his  party's  nomination  was  singularly  free 
from  the  generalities  and  the  apostrophes  to  Liberty 
with  which  presidential  candidates  and  dictators  in  the 
Spanish-American  republics  are  accustomed  to  season 
their  discourses.  Instead  it  was  a  plea  for  a  school 
system,  internal  improvements,  railways,  irrigation, 
harbor  works,  fiscal  reforms,  and  economical  adminis- 
tration. 

General  Pierola  also  made  industrial  measures  the 
leading  feature  of  his  program. 


152  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

The  campaign  caused  anxiety,  though  the  tension 
clearly  was  less  than  in  the  previous  year  in  the  period 
between  Senor  Candamo's  election  and  his  inaugura- 
tion. Demonstrations  by  the  rival  political  groups  re- 
sulted in  bad  blood,  there  were  collisions  with  the 
police  in  which  several  persons  were  killed  or  injured, 
and  election  riots  after  the  manner  of  some  sections 
of  the  United  States.  But  these  incidents  were  not 
numerous  enough  to  show  the  existence  of  a  revolu- 
tionary spirit,  and  they  were  dismissed  with  the  euphe- 
mistic designation  of  "electoral  effervescences." 

Meanwhile  the  real  electoral  contest  was  going  on 
in  the  newspapers,  in  meetings,  and  by  manifestos  and 
addresses  to  the  public.  It  soon  became  evident  that 
the  Civil  party  with  Senor  Pardo  as  its  leader  would 
triumph.  The  Pierolists  asked  the  government  for  a 
postponement  of  the  election.  This  was  refused  on 
the  ground  that  under  the  laws  and  the  constitution 
no  authority  existed  for  such  postponement.  Then 
the  Pierola  ticket  was  withdrawn  by  the  Popular 
Democrats  and  the  Liberals,  and  their  followers  were 
advised  not  to  vote.  This  action  was  a  resort  to  the 
minority  method  practiced  in  Spain  and  her  offshoot 
countries  in  America.  It  is  an  admission  in  advance 
that  the  other  party  will  win. 

After  General  Pierola's  withdrawal  the  Civilistas 
and  their  allies  exerted  themselves  against  what  in  the 
United  States  we  call  apathy.  To  comply  with  the 
law  and  make  the  election  valid,  it  is  necessary  to  have 
one-third  of  the  registered  vote  cast.    The  proportion 


PERU'S  GROWTH  AND  GOVERNMENT       153 

of  the  ballots  was  much  larger  than  that.  Senor  Pardo 
was  elected  in  August  and  inaugurated  in  September. 
He  formed  his  cabinet  with  young  blood  tempered 
by  experience.  Senor  Leguia,  who  as  his  colleague 
in  President  Candamo's  cabinet  had  been  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  and  had  been  the  warm  advocate  of  the 
new  industrial  policy,  was  called  to  the  Treasury  again 
and  became  president  of  the  cabinet.  Other  members 
of  the  cabinet  selected  also  had  the  confidence  of  the 
public.  The  continuance  of  civil  administration  and 
the  dominance  of  civilian  measures  were  reaffirmed, 
and  it  was  shown  that  Peru  had  taken  another  stride 
toward  stability  by  the  acquiescence  of  the  defeated 
party.  The  opposition  made  no  effort  to  question  the 
election. 

The  administration  of  President  Pardo  was  a  most 
successful  one,  but  it  is  one  of  the  iron-bound  rules  of 
South  American  politics,  that  no  president  may  serve 
two  terms  in  succession.  It  was  a  very  happy  circum- 
stance, however,  that  the  Civilistas  had  still  another 
strong  man  in  Senor  Augusto  B,  Leguia,  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  under  two  administrations,  who  was 
elected  in  August,  1908,  and  on  the  24th  of  September 
of  that  year  was  inaugurated.  For  four  years  now 
President  Liguia  has  splendidly  managed  Peru's  na- 
tional affairs,  and  while  he  has  been  progressive  and 
determined  in  his  administration,  he  has  still  shown 
that  caution  exercised  by  the  presidents  of  Peru  for 
the  last  twenty  years.  Under  his  administration  the 
government  has  made  great  progress. 


154  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

I  have  given  the  substance  of  the  spirit  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  Peru  as  it  exists  today,  leaving  only  brief 
space  for  an  analysis  of  the  form.  The  constitution 
now  in  force  was  adopted  in  1860  and  was  modeled 
after  that  of  the  United  States.  Power  is  centralized, 
though  there  is  a  reasonable  measure  of  local  self- 
government  or  local  administration.  Geographical 
isolation  of  the  different  sections  is  one  cause  of  the 
centralized  authority.  The  political  division  of  the 
Republic  is  into  twenty-one  departments,  which  are 
subdivided  into  ninety-seven  provinces,  and  these  into 
778  districts.  The  source  of  administrative  authority 
in  each  department  is  the  prefect,  who  is  named  by 
the  central  government.  In  many  of  the  departments 
the  prefect  is  an  officer  of  the  regular  army.  Each 
of  the  provinces  has  a  sub-prefect,  and  the  districts 
have  their  local  rulers  or  governors,  depending  from 
the  higher  power.  In  the  municipalities  the  alcalde 
is  appointed,  but  the  members  of  the  Council  are 
elected.  The  Amazon  Province  of  Loreto  has  a  sys- 
tem of  administration  somewhat  different  from  the 
other  departments.  It  is  more  under  military  admin- 
istration. The  customs  administration  at  Iquitos  also 
requires  a  close  supervision  by  the  national  authorities. 

The  powers  of  the  Executive  are  defined  with  clear- 
ness. They  are  complete,  though  there  is  something 
of  a  limitation  in  the  Council  of  State,  which  was 
created  by  law  in  1896,  is  in  some  respects  an  execu- 
tive body.  When  the  cabinet  is  in  full  sympathy  with 
the  President,  the  Council  of  State  is  his  instrument. 


PERU'S  GROWTH  AND  GOVERNMENT       155 

But  when  this  body  is  made  up  of  warring  political 
elements,  the  President  is  not  always  able  to  have  his 
way.  The  system  obtains  of  having  the  various  polit- 
ical groups  represented,  and  when  there  is  a  hostile 
majority  in  the  Congress  that  is  the  only  means  by 
which  the  government  can  be  carried  on.  Frequently 
it  results  in  an  administration  of  cross  purposes.  The 
Cabinet  members  may  be  also  members  of  the  Con- 
gress, and  may  be  summoned  before  either  branch  of 
that  body  to  give  explanations  and  may  take  part  in 
the  debates.  The  Peruvian  Congress  is  peculiar  in 
one  respect.  This  is  in  the  election  of  suplentes,  or 
deputy  representatives  and  deputy  senators.  When 
the  election  is  held,  it  is  both  for  members  and  for 
deputy  members.  Thus  it  happens  that  the  Congress 
never  need  be  without  a  quorum  in  either  branch,  and 
no  district  or  department  need  be  deprived  of  repre- 
sentation temporarily  by  the  death  or  absence  of  the 
senator  or  representative.  His  deputy  can  be  counted 
on  to  attend  the  sessions. 

The  church  is  a  part  of  the  state  in  Peru,  and  has 
been  usually  an  unprogressive  part.  The  ecclesiastical 
organization  consists  of  an  archbishop,  resident  in 
Lima,  and  eight  suffragen  bishops  for  the  various 
dioceses.  The  church  as  an  institution  has  opposed 
movements  to  liberalize  Peru,  and  has  instigated  revo- 
lutions against  reforms. 

Roman  Catholicism  is  intrenched  in  the  constitu- 
tion, not  only  as  a  religion  of  the  state,  but  by  the 
prohibition  of  other  forms  of  worship.    The  Protest- 


156  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

ant  congregations  are  not  numerous,  and  it  is  still 
necessary  to  call  their  places  of  worship  halls  instead 
of  churches.  Yet  under  liberal  administrations  no 
real  difficulty  is  experienced  by  the  missionaries  who 
temper  good  sense  with  zeal.  In  remote  districts  the 
central  government  can  not  always  insure  protection 
against  local  prejudices,  but  its  authority  is  exerted 
to  that  end.  The  testimonies  of  the  missionaries  them- 
selves is  that  they  are  meeting  fewer  and  fewer  diffi- 
culties, and  even  in  the  strongholds  of  intolerance, 
such  as  Cuzco  and  Arequipa,  they  are  able  to  carry 
on  their  proselyting  labors  without  interference. 

In  the  passing  of  years  the  constitution  of  Peru 
will  be  amended  so  as  to  welcome  Protestantism, 
though  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  will  remain  the 
state  church.  This  constitutional  amendment  is  some- 
what cumbersome,  since  it  requires  consecutive  action 
by  two  congresses  in  order  to  become  effective;  but 
the  sentiment  in  favor  of  it  is  spreading  and  proposi- 
tions already  have  been  presented  to  Congress.  Wise 
Protestants  do  not  believe  in  urging  it  too  rapidly. 
They  realize  that  with  a  succession  of  liberal  govern- 
ments and  with  the  toleration  that  already  is  mani- 
fest. Protestantism  can  afford  to  wait  and  work. 

The  provisions  of  the  Peruvian  constitution  and 
the  laws  with  regard  to  foreigners  are  liberal.  For- 
eigners may  be  naturalized  after  two  years'  residence. 
The  government  at  Lima  through  the  prefects  extends 
every  possible  protection  to  those  who  are  traveling 
or  who  seek  to  engage  in  mining  or  other  industries. 


PERU'S  GROWTH  AND  GOVERNMENT       157 

The  trouble  which  arises  generally  is  with  the  local 
authorities,  and  Europeans  and  Americans  who  have 
a  reasonable  degree  of  tact  and  are  willing  to  adapt 
themselves  to  their  surroundings  usually  can  make 
themselves  personas  gratas.  Where  they  start  in  with 
the  disposition  to  flaunt  their  foreign  citizenship  and 
to  override  the  natives,  not  even  the  central  authority 
can  prevent  local  antagonisms.  In  four  cases  out  of 
five  the  foreigner  in  Peru  who  gets  into  trouble  with 
the  local  authorities  has  only  himself  to  blame. 

The  government  in  the  laws  it  has  promulgated  for 
the  mining  industry,  for  the  exploitation  of  the  rubber 
forests,  for  irrigation,  and  for  the  navigation  of  the 
waterways  has  sought  especially  to  protect  and  en- 
courage foreign  capital  and  individuals.  Foreigners 
may  be  members  of  the  deputations  and  delegations 
which  are  provided  in  the  mining  code,  and  they  also 
may  serve  in  the  municipal  councils.  On  the  alder- 
manic  ticket  at  Cuzco  and  other  places  I  found  Eng- 
lish and  German  names,  and  was  told  that  these  can- 
didates had  not  been  naturalized  and  had  no  intention 
of  being.  This  provision  should  be  of  particular  value 
in  colonization  movements  where  communities  may  be 
established  without  the  native  Peruvians. 

In  relation  to  income  and  outgo  there  are  three 
sources  of  revenue, — general,  municipal,  and  depart- 
mental. The  general  revenues  are  had  from  the  cus- 
toms import  and  export  duties,  from  the  stamp  tax, 
and  from  the  internal  revenues  on  tobacco,  alcohol^ 
sugar,  matches,  and  similar  articles  of  consumption. 


158  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

Salt  IS  a  natural  monopoly.  The  departmental  reve- 
nues are  from  the  land  tax  (which  is  very  light),  from 
the  imposts  on  property  transfers,  from  the  inheri- 
tance tax,  and  from  a  variety  of  industrial  sources. 
The  municipal  taxes  are  obtained  from  local  tolls, 
licenses,  surveys,  and  like  means. 

Somewhat  curiously  in  this  age,  the  collection  of 
the  internal  taxes  is  farmed  out  by  the  national  gov- 
ernment. A  joint-stock  company  known  as  the  Na- 
tional Tax  Collection  Society,  by  an  agreement  with 
the  government,  collects  all  these  revenues  and  turns 
them  in,  retaining  its  percentage  and  providing  loans 
when  needed  for  current  purposes.  The  stock  of  this 
company  was  taken  mainly  by  the  Lima  Chamber  of 
Commerce.  There  is  also  in  Lima  a  provincial  tax 
collection  association,  which  takes  charge  of  the  local 
revenues  in  the  same  manner  that  the  national  com- 
pany collects  the  general  revenues.  Contrary  to  what 
might  be  supposed,  this  system  works  very  well,  and  is 
satisfactory  to  the  tax-payers,  while  the  government 
gets  a  larger  return  than  if  it  itself  were  the  col- 
lector. 

Peru  is  almost  exceptional  among  the  South 
American  Republics  for  establishing  and  maintaining 
the  gold  standard.  This  is  a  brilliant  and  instructive 
chapter  of  financial  history.  The  beginning  was  made 
in  1897,  following  the  presidential  election  in  the 
United  States.  General  Pierola  was  President  and 
was  strongly  in  favor  of  the  gold  basis.  Though  Peru 
was  a  silver-producing  country,  a  law  was  passed  pro- 


PERU'S  GROWTH  AND  GOVERNMENT       159 

viding  that  gold  should  be  the  sole  standard,  that  cus- 
toms duties  should  be  thus  paid,  that  there  should  be 
no  further  silver  coinage,  and  that  the  ratio  should  be 
ten  soles  of  silver,  equal  to  the  English  pound  sterling, 
or  the  Peruvian  pound  sterling,  which  is  the  exact 
equivalent  in  weight  and  fineness  of  the  English  pound 
and  is  known  as  the  inca.  It  also  was  provided  that 
silver  should  not  be  legal  tender  in  amounts  greater 
than  $100,  that  no  person  should  be  permitted  to  bring 
more  than  ten  soles  into  the  country,  and  that  the  ex- 
port duties  on  silver  should  be  repealed.  Subse- 
quent legislation  strengthened  this  law,  and  the  gov- 
ernment by  an  arrangement  with  the  banks  called 
in  and  melted  into  bullion  the  redundant  soles,  it- 
self taking  the  loss.  There  was  opposition,  especially 
in  the  Cerro  de  Pasco  mining  region,  where  the  out- 
put of  silver  was  greatest.  In  the  interior  also  the 
Indians,  who  had  been  accustomed  to  silver,  could  not 
be  made  to  understand  gold.  But  as  they  have  few 
transactions  in  which  a  yellow  coin  is  necessary,  this 
was  not  a  serious  drawback. 

Paper  money,  either  bank  emissions  or  national 
notes,  is  prohibited  by  the  law  of  1879.  The  cur- 
rency which  was  in  circulation  in  1881  was  converted 
into  internal  debt.  This  internal  debt  grew  out  of 
the  calling  in  of  the  paper  currency  and  the  liquidation 
of  old  accounts.  The  total  is  approximately  $15,000,- 
000.  A  small  yearly  disbursement  is  required  for  its 
service.  Part  of  this  so-called  internal  debt  earns  one 
per  cent  yearly  interest,  and  the  remainder  receives 


160  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

no  interest,  being  provided  for  out  of  a  redemption 
fund  which  amounts  to  $125,000  annually.  This 
liquidation  has  been  regularly  carried  on  since  the 
bonds  were  issued  under  the  terms  of  the  law  of  1888. 
The  yearly  fund  appropriated  for  interest  and  the 
sinking  fund  remain  stationary  unless  increased  by 
Congress. 

In  the  ten  years  following  1895,  the  banking  capi- 
tal of  Peru  increased  at  the  rate  of  150  per  cent,  while 
the  deposit  accounts  ran  up  from  $4,500,000  to  $14,- 
000,000.  The  banks  pay  dividends  of  14  to  16  per 
cent.  Volumes  might  be  written  about  the  causes 
which  are  leading  to  the  commercial  and  industrial 
prosperity  of  the  country  and  contributing  to  the 
political  stability.  The  convincing  evidence  of  the 
fact  is  the  growth  in  the  bank  deposits.  In  these 
chapters  on  Peru  I  have  sought  to  show  something  of 
the  country  and  the  people,  of  the  resources  and  the 
commerce,  of  the  economic  prospects  and  the  political 
conditions,  for  all  of  them  must  be  known  if  the 
country's  future  is  to  be  judged.  What  the  joining 
of  the  Amazon  to  the  Pacific  means,  what  the  new 
industrial  life  promises,  what  the  governmental  stabil- 
ity signifies,  may  find  an  answer  in  what  has  been  writ- 
ten, for  I  believe  in  the  destiny  of  Peru,  but  not  an 
irridescent,  dazzling  destiny  to  be  realized  within  a 
twelvemonth  or  a  decade.  Instead,  a  gradual  growth 
to  be  attained  by  a  plodding  policy,  sympathetic  to  the 
popular  aspirations  yet  rock-rooted  in  sound  princi- 
ples of  national  progress.'^" 


CHAPTER  XI 


CHILEAN    CONDITIONS 


CHILE  has  a  political  history  that  marks  an  iso- 
lated chapter  among  Spanish-American  repub- 
lics. Its  unique  and  significant  feature  is  four  suc- 
cessive and  peaceful  presidencies  of  ten  years  each. 
The  phenomenon  is  worthy  of  study.  The  tributes 
which  the  Chileans  pay  themselves  are  merited.  Their 
national  growth  has  been  a  growth,  not  a  series  of 
spasms. 

After  independence  was  achieved  through  O'Hig- 
gins  in  1818,  the  Liberator  was  sent  into  exile,  because 
he  sought  to  exert  kingly  powers  as  a  dictator  under 
the  merest  crust  of  republican  forms.  The  riot  of 
liberty  followed  for  ten  or  twelve  years  with  fre- 
quent revolutions,  changes  of  rulers,  and  unavailing 
efforts  to  form  a  stable  government.  The  anarchy  of 
license  under  the  mask  of  popular  institutions  reached 
its  height  during  the  period  from  1828  to  1833,  when 
the  Liberal  party — that  is,  liberal  in  name — ^^A^as  in 
power.  Then  came  the  Conservatives  or  reactionists. 
They  forced  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  1833, 
which  remained  unchanged  for  thirty-seven  years. 
Order  and  tranquility  was  the  motto,  and  general  re- 
publicanism was  choked  in  order  that  a  government  of 
law  might  live. 

161 


1(52  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

From  1833  to  1873  Chile  had  four  presidents,  all 
elected  and  re-elected  under  constitutional  forms. 
These  chief  magistrates  were  Joaquin  Prieto,  Manuel 
Bulnes,  Manuel  Montt,  and  Jose  Joaquin  Perez.  Dur- 
ing General  Bulnes'  administration  an  army  uprising 
was  attempted;  during  that  of  President  Montt  a 
revolution  started  at  Copoapo  in  the  north.  There 
were  also  other  disturbances.  But  all  of  them  were 
suppressed  without  long  periods  of  civil  dissensions, 
and  though  liberty  seemed  to  be  smothered  under 
councils  of  war  and  the  absolute  suspension  of  indi- 
vidual  rights,  it  was  a  hardy  plant  and  after  a  brief 
period  would  begin  to  grow  again. 

Under  the  Constitution  of  1833  the  presidential 
term  was  five  years,  and  there  was  no  prohibition 
against  a  second  term.  In  this  manner  each  president 
re-elected  himself  and  enjoyed  a  ten  years'  tenure. 
But  he  could  not  have  done  this  if  the  privileged 
classes,  the  family  groups,  had  not  sustained  him. 
They  were  aggressive  in  defending  their  share  in  the 
oligarchy,  and  their  individual  independence  they 
maintained  as  sturdily  as  did  the  English  barons  who 
forced  the  Magna  Charta  from  King  John.  With  the 
national  development  assured,  the  country  began  to 
chafe  under  the  recognition  of  the  autocratic  power 
which  was  vested  in  the  Executive,  and  to  feel  that  the 
growth  which  would  not  have  been  possible  without 
the  colonial  despotism  under  republican  form  had  now 
reached  the  full  measure.  Consequently  the  agitation 
for  liberalizing  the  constitution  began  and^was  contin- 


CHILEAN  CONDITIONS  163 

ued  persistently  instead  of  intermittently.  In  the 
decade  from  1860  to  1870  the  Conservative  reaction- 
aries were  pressed  so  vigorously  and  were  on  the  de- 
fensive so  constantly  that  the  harsh  features  of  the 
constitution  were  modified  in  the  spirit  if  not  in  the 
letter. 

During  the  life  of  this  old  parchment  and  the  four 
Executives  who  put  it  into  practice, — for  there  never 
was  a  dictator  among  them, — Chile  consolidated  her 
domestic  interests,  inaugurated  the  building  of  rail- 
ways, and  by  the  navy  and  other  means  prepared  for 
the  war  which  it  was  felt  one  day  would  be  had  with 
Peru  and  Bolivia.  In  view  of  all  that  was  accom- 
plished, it  can  hardly  be  said  that  the  Constitution  of 
1833  and  the  power  of  the  one  hundred  families  as 
exerted  under  that  instrument,  were  bad  for  the  coun- 
try. But  a  change  was  inevitable,  and  in  1870  the  con- 
stitution was  reformed  in  a  manner  to  bring  it  within 
the  sphere  of  modern  principles  of  government  and 
remove  its  aggressive  antagonism  to  republican  insti- 
tutions. Greater  independence  was  conceded  to  the 
judicial  power,  and  larger  liberty  of  action  to  the 
municipal  authorities,  while  the  electoral  right  of  the 
citizens  was  broadened.  The  presidential  term  re- 
mained at  five  years,  but  successive  elections  were  pro- 
hibited so  that  the  ten-year  tenure  could  not  continue. 

Frederica  Errazuriz  was  the  first  of  the  executives 
to  serve  under  the  amended  constitution.  His  term 
was  peaceful  and  progressive,  but  was  devoted  chiefly 
to  preparing  for  war  by  ordering  the  construction  of 


164  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

the  armored  cruisers  which  rendered  the  Chilean  navy 
so  formidable.  He  was  succeeded  by  Anibal  Pinto, 
who  had  served  in  the  cabinet  as  Minister  of  War.  A 
financial  and  economic  crisis  supervened  during  his 
administration,  and  in  its  closing  year  was  fought  the 
war  of  the  Pacific,  with  Chile  as  the  antagonist  of 
allied  Bolivia  and  Peru.  Chile's  sweeping  victories 
not  only  gave  her  the  nitrate  territory  which  she  ex- 
acted as  war  indemnity ;  it  made  her  the  most  aggres- 
sive and  the  most  feared  Power  in  South  America. 

It  had  been  the  custom  for  the  outgoing  president 
to  intervene  in  the  elections  in  order  to  insure  the 
election  of  a  candidate  of  his  own  choosing.  President 
Pinto  announced  his  purpose  of  repudiating  this  prac- 
tice, yet  he  was  succeeded  by  Domingo  Santa  Maria, 
who  had  held  the  portfolio  of  Foreign  Relations  in  his 
cabinet.  President  Santa  Maria  found  himself  antag- 
onized by  the  Conservatives  and  one  wing  of  the  Lib- 
erals. He  tried  to  organize  an  administration  party 
and  to  control  the  election  of  senators  and  deputies 
in  the  Congress,  but  failed.  This  was  a  clear  mani- 
festation of  the  inability  of  the  Executive  to  rule  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  families  who  composed  the  va- 
rious political  groups.  But  the  issue  between  the  Ex- 
ecutive and  the  families  was  to  be  forced  by  a  more 
resolute  hand.  Its  outcome  was  dramatic,  a  tragedy 
for  the  nation  and  a  tragedy  for  one  of  the  country's 
greatest  men. 

Jose  Manuel  Balmaceda  was  chosen  president  in 
1886,  after  a  sharp  electoral  struggle  in  which  Con- 


CHILEAN  CONDITIONS  165 

servatives  and  the  reactionary  faction  of  the  Liberals 
opposed  him.  He  sought  to  conciHate  the  latter  by 
calling  some  of  them  to  his  cabinet.  He  had  grand 
plans  for  the  development  of  the  nation,  and  he 
wanted  a  united  support. 

President  Balmaceda  strengthened  the  naval  and 
military  establishment  out  of  the  nitrate  proceeds; 
but  his  guiding  ambition  was  to  apply  them  to  public 
improvements,  railways,  roads,  harbors,  and  schools. 
The  Conservative-Liberal  fusion  thwarted  him.  It 
prevailed  in  the  Congress,  and  demanded  that  he 
name  ministers  satisfactory  to  the  majority.  This  he 
claimed  was  in  violation  of  his  constitutional  preroga- 
tives. The  Congress  refused  to  authorize  the  taxes 
and  appropriations  necessary  for  carrying  on  the  gov- 
ernment. When  for  any  reason  this  was  not  done  at 
the  regular  session,  the  practice  had  been  to  convoke 
Congress  in  extra  sessions.  President  Balmaceda, 
wearied  with  the  controversy,  abstained  from  taking 
this  action.  On  January  1,  1891,  he  announced  that 
the  appropriations  for  the  current  year  would  be  the 
same  as  during  the  previous  year. 

Bloody,  merciless  civil  war  followed.  The  Con- 
gressionalists  proclaimed  that  their  contest  was  against 
executive  usurpation.  They  removed  to  Valparaiso, 
and  took  refuge  on  the  warships  which  had  been  pre- 
pared for  them.  They  named  Captain  Jorge  Montt 
as  Commander  of  the  National  Squadron.  President 
Balmaceda  declared  Montt  and  the  naval  commanders 
who  obeyed  his  orders  traitors.    The  President  orga- 


1^  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

nized  an  army,  while  the  navy  sailed  for  Iquique  and 
seized  the  nitrate  provinces. 

The  Congressionalists  instituted  their  provisional 
government  there  to  carry  on  the  war  against  Pres- 
ident Balmaceda.  They  organized  troops  which  were 
transported  to  Valparaiso  and  defeated  the  garrison. 
A  second  victory  at  Placilla  and  they  were  in  control 
of  the  capital,  welcomed  by  the  populace  as  liberators. 

Balmaceda  took  refuge  in  the  Argentine  Lega- 
tion. Flight  across  the  Andes  was  open  to  him,  but 
he  disdained  it.  He  waited  calmly  till  September  19, 
the  day  on  which  his  constitutional  term  as  president 
ended,  wrote  farewell  letters  to  his  family  and  friends, 
arrayed  himself  in  black,  pointed  a  revolver  at  his 
right  temple,  discharged  it,  and  died  instantly.  His 
policies  live. 

These  swiftly  tragic  events  have  only  been  re- 
called to  show  their  relation  to  the  political  system 
of  Chile  as  it  exists  today,  for  they  influenced  it  and 
caused  modifications  of  the  Constitutional  restrictive 
of  the  Executive  power. 

By  the  books  the  form  of  Chilean  government  is 
popular  representative.  To  the  foreign  observer  the 
wonder  grows  that  a  system  which  gives  such  inor- 
dinate power  to  small  groups  of  families,  who  call 
themselves  political  parties,  and  which  binds  the  Ex- 
ecutive hand  and  foot,  can  prove  satisfactory.  But 
it  suits  Chile,  or  has  suited  her,  and  the  country  pro- 
gresses. That  is  the  conclusive  answer.  If  Chile 
chooses  to  make  a  straight- jacket  for  herself,  that  is 


CHILEAN  CONDITIONS  167 

her  own  concern,  and  if  in  that  straight- jacket  she 
expands  and  develops  a  progressive  national  life,  she 
may  be  permitted  to  take  her  own  way  and  her  own 
time  for  freeing  herself. 

But  what  of  the  governing  classes  ?  Who  com- 
pose them?  The  Chilean  professional  man  or  mer- 
chant or  government  official  will  tell  you  that  there 
are  no  class  distinctions,  and  at  the  same  time  will 
take  pride  in  drawing  himself  and  his  fellows  far  apart 
from  the  masses.  It  has  been  said  that  a  hundred 
families  have  ruled  Chile  for  seventy-five  years.  The 
numeral  might  be  doubled  or  trebled,  but  the  truth 
would  not  be  changed.  The  landed  interests,  the  com- 
mercial community,  and  the  church  have  ruled  the 
country,  and  it  must  be  said  that  they  have  ruled  well. 
They  may  accuse  one  another  of  being  false  to  their 
trusteeship,  but  the  foreign  observer  is  not  impressed 
with  this  charge.  All  of  them  have  worked  together 
to  make  Chile  the  powerful  and  aggressive  little  na- 
tion that  she  is,  and  have  secured  her  respect  that  the 
rest  of  South  America  has  given  her.  But  they  have 
taken  all  the  benefits  for  themselves, — the  honors  and 
emoluments  of  public  office,  the  opportunities  for 
wealth  that  came  from  the  nitrate  fields,  the  chances 
for  careers  that  have  been  afforded  by  the  army  and 
navy.  It  may  almost  be  said  that  the  army  and  navy 
exist  for  the  employment  of  the  one  hundred  families. 

Chile  herself  is  not  a  country  of  great  private 
fortunes.  One  or  two  families  have  been  enriched  by 
mines,  a  half-dozen  by  banking  and  commercial  devei- 


168  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

opment,  a  larger  number  by  nitrates.  But  when  it  is 
all  said,  the  Chilean  hundred  families  are  kin  of  mod- 
erate means.  Their  main  sources  of  income  are  from 
their  landed  estates.  These  land-owners  do  not  tax 
themselves  heavily.  As  in  the  maj.ority  of  countries 
of  Spanish-America,  the  government  imposts  are  laid 
on  the  revenue  from  the  land  and  not  on  the  land  it- 
self. The  landed  proprietors  contrive  that  these  im- 
posts shall  be  light. 

The  existing  regimen,  as  studied  on  paper,  is  al- 
most a  complete  reversal  of  the  regimen  under  w^hich 
for  nearly  half  a  century  Chilean  nationality  was  de- 
veloped and  the  little  ribbon  of  a  republic  was  con- 
solidated and  made  strong.  The  old  form  was  a 
colonial  despotism,  with  monarchical  powers  for  the 
Executive.  The  present  system  is  congressional  des- 
potism without  republican  powers  for  the  Executive, 
but  under  both  forms  the  one  hundred  families  have 
ruled.  The  president  is  selected  by  electors  chosen  in 
the  provinces  through  direct  suffrage,  since  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  provincial  legislatures. 

In  the  fabric  of  Chilean  social  organization  the 
warp  is  the  individual  unit  known  as  the  roto.  The 
roto  constitutes  the  mass.  Pelucon,  aristocrat,  is  a 
term  transmitted  from  the  old  regime.  Violent  ob- 
jection is  made  to  its  use  at  the  present  day  on  the 
ground  that  there  are  no  privileged  classes  and  that  it 
never  had  more  than  a  restricted  meaning.  But  it 
describes  the  antithesis  of  the  roto  since  his  evolution 
into  the  proletariat  began,  and  it  typifies  a  recognized 


CHILEAN  CONDITIONS  169 

social  distinction,  so  that  its  use  is  permissible.  Pelu- 
con  comes  within  the  designation  of  the  governing 
classes  and  the  one  hundred  families,  and  does  not 
require  further  explanation. 

One  morning  in  May,  1903,  the  Chilean  govern- 
ment and  the  foreign  presidents  awakened  to  the  ex- 
istence of  the  roto  as  an  organized  element  in  society, 
with  destructive  capabilities  and  the  courage  of  de- 
structive tendencies.  Disputes  with  the  steamship 
companies  had  resulted  in  a  strike.  That  morning  the 
mob  seized  Valparaiso  and  took  to  burning  property, 
pillaging,  and  killing.  It  was  a  wild  mob,  but  it  had 
perception  and  direction.  It  burned  the  offices  of  the 
Chilean  corporation  known  as  the  South  American 
Steamship  Company,  and  undertook  to  sack  one  of  the 
newspapers,  but  it  left  unharmed  the  property  of  the 
Pacific  Steam  Navigation  Company,  which  was  a 
British  corporation.  Its  grievances  against  both  com- 
panies were  the  same,  but  this  Chilean  mob  would 
give  no  ground  for  foreign  intervention. 

The  authorities  were  blamed  for  the  demoraliza- 
tion which  the  strike  developed.  It  was  charged  that 
the  forces  were  at  hand  to  quell  the  disorder,  and 
that  a  firm  show  of  strength  would  have  saved  the 
hundred  lives  which  were  sacrificed  before  the  rioting 
and  sacking  were  ended.  The  inquiry  was  made  why 
five  hundred  marines  who  were  available  were  not 
utilized.  The  sinister  reply  was  that  they  had  refused 
to  be  used,  that  they  had  been  on  the  point  of  mutiny 
when  it  was  attempted  to  use  them.     They  were  of 


170  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

the  roto  class,  recruited  from  the  same  ranks  as  the 
strikers.  The  exact  truth  never  got  to  the  public. 
The  Chilean  government  vindicated  its  ability  to  main- 
tain order  and  by  the  presence  of  warships  and  of 
troops  silenced  the  clamor  of  the  timid  English  and 
French  residents  who  were  calling  for  cruisers  to  be 
sent  by  their  own  governments. 

A  generation  ago,  J.  V.  Lastarria,  the  Chilean  dip- 
lomat and  historian,  asserted:  "The  Chileans  are  the 
most  homogeneous  people  of  Spanish-America,  and 
they  know  how  to  use  in  the  most  practical  and  pru- 
dent manner  their  political  rights."  He  also  declared 
that  the  physical  and  social  elements  of  his  country 
explained  her  salvation  from  the  disastrous  anarchy 
which  the  other  republics  had  suffered  and  her  prog- 
ress in  all  spheres  of  human  activity. 

This  complacent  judgment  was  not  unjust,  but  in 
describing  his  countrymen  Senor  Lastarria  meant 
chiefly  the  higher  stratum,  the  governing  classes. 
When  he  wrote,  the  robust  race  mixture  was  yet  going 
on,  the  amalgam  of  peasant  northern  Spain  and  of  the 
Basque,  after  two  centuries  of  transplantation,  with 
the  fierce  xAraucanian  Indian  blood.  Not  all  of  the 
original  amalgam  has  been  Araucanian.  There  are 
ten  distinct  aboriginal  tribes  known  in  Chile,  and  in 
the  northern  part  the  mixture  has  been  more  that  of 
the  Indians  of  the  historic  Upper  Peru  or  Bolivia. 
All  of  these  tribes  have  been  habituated  to  hardship, 
and  the  grosser  qualities  of  civilization  have  been 
developed  aggressively. 


CHILEAN  CONDITIONS  Ifl 

The  Chilean  lower  stratum  of  today  is  far  from  the 
refinements  of  civilization.  Its  vices  and  its  virtues 
are  equally  strong.  Among  the  virtues  is  native  inde- 
pendence. The  vices  are  of  crude,  half-conscious 
brute  power,  with  little  restraint  of  the  passions. 

The  roto  has  many  qualities  in  common  with  the 
higher  classes.  His  patriotism  is  fully  as  deep.  Here- 
tofore he  has  been  willing  to  fight  at  the  dictation  of 
the  military  commander,  but  the  threatened  mutiny 
of  the  marines  was  a  warning.  At  the  very  time  the 
conscription  was  going  on,  and  an  uncommon  sullen- 
ness  was  shown  by  the  conscripts  in  the  interior,  and 
a  vague  resentment  against  being  enlisted  to  fight 
their  brothers.  This  was  when  the  necessity  of  em- 
ploying the  army  to  break  the  strike  was  most  openly 
discussed. 

i\mong  the  qualities  of  the  roto,  whether  in  the 
army  or  navy  or  in  the  mass  of  the  population,  is 
persistence  in  his  prejudices.  He  is  not  easily  changed 
from  that  which  is  taught  him.  I  was  in  Santiago 
during  the  celebration  of  the  peace  pacts  with  Argen- 
tina. The  governing  classes  and  the  merchants  en- 
tered heartily  into  those  festivities.  They  knew  that 
the  prevention  of  war  by  the  treaties  had  saved  the 
country  from  bankruptcy,  even  though  war  might 
have  brought  territorial  extension.  But  it  was  noticed 
everywhere  that  the  masses  took  no  part  in  the  demon- 
strations. They  either  were  surly  or  indifferent. 
They  had  been  taught  to  believe  that  Argentina  was 
an  enemy  with  whom  they  would  have  to  make  war 


172  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

and  from  whom  they  would  have  a  chance  to  take 
spoils.  They  could  not  readily  turn  about  and  join 
in  the  celebrations  of  peace. 

In  the  economic  discussion  of  the  social  movement, 
citations  will  be  made  of  the  lack  of  thrift  on  the 
part  of  the  roto  classes,  and  their  unwillingness  to  do 
anything  for  themselves.  This  is  a  loose  assumption, 
which  is  not  warranted.  On  the  seacoast  he  may  be 
reckless  with  his  wages,  but  in  the  interior  this  is  not 
true,  and  I  question  whether  it  is  true  to  the  extent 
claimed  even  in  the  seaports.  There  is  some  reason 
for  this  doubt,  since  it  is  shown  that  the  savings  bank 
carries  50,000  small  accounts,  and  some  of  them  very 
small  indeed.  The  depositors  represented  by  these 
accounts  are  soldiers,  sailors,  servants,  students,  seam- 
stresses, shoemakers,  merchants,  farmers,  and  laun- 
dresses. This  surely  indicates  thrift  on  the  part  of  the 
mass  of  the  population. 

Trade  and  industry  in  the  future  will  have  a 
broader  scope  in  Chilean  national  policies.  The  pass- 
ing of  the  era  of  unlimited  naval  expansion  assures 
this  result.  After  the  peace  pacts  with  Argentina 
were  made  effective,  and  the  building  of  new  battle- 
ships was  stopped,  it  was  estimated  that  $1,000,000 
went  into  industries  of  the  soil.  By  the  sale  of  other 
superfluous  naval  armament  to  European  Powers, 
more  funds  can  be  released  for  public  works  and  agri- 
cultural development. 

The  industrial  resources  of  Chile  are  mirrored, 
though  not  with  completeness,  in  the  Permanent  In- 


CHILEAN  CONDITIONS  173 

dustrial  Exhibition  which  opened  in  1904.  This  cov- 
ers not  only  the  products  of  the  soil,  but  also  the 
home  manufactures  that  are  fabricated  either  from 
imported  raw  material  or  from  half-manufactured 
products  brought  in  to  encourage  home  industries. 
The  Chilean  policy  is  protective  both  by  bounties  and 
by  duties.  The  sugar  refineries,  which  import  the 
raw  cane-sugar  from  Peru,  are  among  the  most  sta- 
ble of  the  industries.  The  flour  mills  are  also  profit- 
able enterprises.  They  grind  the  native  wheat,  and 
have  a  market  for  the  flour  for  export  in  Bolivia  and 
Peru,  as  well  as  farther  up  the  coast. 

The  country  has  about  8,000  industrial  establish- 
ments. Among  these  are  400  engaged  in  tanning  and 
curing  hides,  430  in  various  kinds  of  woodworking, 
308  in  metallurgy,  268  in  chemical  products,  560  in 
ceramics  or  pottery,  1900  in  food  products,  1920  in 
cloth  manufacturing  and  tailoring,  700  in  building, 
and  so  on.  Car-shops  are  maintained  in  connection 
with  the  state  railways.  A  disposition  on  the  part  of 
foreign  capital  to  engage  in  textile  manufactures  has 
received  encouragement,  and  woolen  and  cotton  mills 
are  being  established.  The  native  labor,  judged  by  the 
experiments,  is  competent. 

The  public  works  policy  has  become  the  program  of 
all  political  groups,  though  the  Congress  sometimes  is 
laggard  in  voting  the  appropriations  recommended  by 
the  Executive.  Railways  are  its  most  important  fea- 
ture. No  chapter  in  Chile's  history  is  more  creditable 
to  her  people  than  the  sacrifices  made  for  building 


174  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

railways,  and  nothing  shows  the  national  instinct  bet- 
ter than  the  perception  that  was  demonstrated  of  the 
part  which  railroads  play  in  both  the  industrial  and  the 
political  development  of  a  nation.  Over  three  thou- 
sand miles  are  in  operation  and  new  lines  are  under 
way.  The  majority  of  the  lines  are  owned  by  the 
government,  with  the  exception  of  the  nitrate  roads 
and  the  Chilean  section  of  the  Antofagasta  and  Bo- 
livian Railway. 

What  Chile  needs  most  is  immigration  and  this 
she  is  seeking  from  northern  Europe  and  Scandinavia. 
Then  with  closer  relations  with  neighboring  countries 
of  South  America  and  a  wider  trade  with  the  world, 
her  industries  will  expand  and  she  will  enter  upon  a 
new^  era  of  commercial  and  industrial  life.  With  these 
economic  forces  recognized  and  given  proper  sphere, 
the  collisions  and  the  cross-purposes  of  domestic  poli- 
tics need  have  no  deterrent  influence  on  the  industrial 
future  of  Chile.  Agriculture,  mining,  and  trade  are 
better  for  her  than  battleships.^ 


CHAPTER  XII 

ARGENTINE  TYPES,   MANNERS,  AND  MORALS 

A  SALIENT  characteristic  of  the  Argentinos  is  a 
desire,  not  only  to  learn  from  Europe,  but  to 
carry  to  the  farthest  possible  pitch  of  perfection  every 
institution  begun,  whether  public  or  private,  and  to 
surpass  their  model.  The  obvious  danger  in  all  rap- 
idly developed  colonial  settlements  is  the  acceptance  of 
the  "half-done,"  an  almost  obligatory  condition  in  the 
early  stages  of  development,  and  one  whose  facility 
of  attainment  is  apt  to  militate  against  the  persistency 
of  effort  after  that  precision  of  completion  which  alone 
can  give  good  results.  This  defect,  in  fact,  consti- 
tutes the  principal  reproach  brought  by  the  systematic 
Northerners  against  the  impulsive  Latin  races,  whose 
temperamental  traits  lead  them  to  content  themselves 
with  a  brilliant  start,  leaving  thereafter  to  imagination 
the  task  of  filling  in  the  blanks  left  in  the  reality  by 
this  unsatisfactory  method  of  operation. 

In  1865,  Buckle,  who  is  a  man  of  no  ordinary  men- 
tal calibre,  did  not  fear  to  write  in  his  History  of 
Civilisation  that  the  compelling  action  of  land  and  cli- 
mate in  Brazil  was  such  that  a  highly  civilized  commu- 
nity must  shortly  find  a  home  there.  The  event  has 
amply  justified  the  bold  prophecy.  In  the  South 
American  republics,  as  in  the  United  States  and  else- 


176  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

where,  there  are  different  degrees  of  fulfilment,  of 
course.  At  the  outset,  while  waiting  for  land  to  ac- 
quire value,  all  peoples  have  had  to  be  satisfied  with 
an  approximate  achievement.  But  in  the  Argentine, 
Uruguay,  and  Brazil  it  is  plain  that  nothing  will  be 
left  half  done,  and  the  capacity  to  carry  all  work 
methodically  forward  to  its  end,  in  no  matter  what 
field  of  labor,  promises  well  for  the  future  of  the  race. 
At  Buenos  Aires  you  will  find  that  this  quality  exists 
in  a  very  high  degree  in  the  Argentino. 

Buenos  Aires  is  the  least  colonial-looking  of  any 
place  in  South  America,  but  at  the  same  time  the  Ar- 
gentino refuses  to  be  simply  a  Spaniard  transplanted 
although  society,  in  Buenos  Aires,  traces  its  descent, 
with  more  or  less  authenticity,  from  the  conquista- 
dores,  and  did  originally  issue  from  the  Iberian  Penin- 
sula. If  we  go  farther  and  inquire  what  other  in- 
fluence, besides  that  of  soil  and  climate,  has  been  ex- 
ercised over  the  European  stock  in  the  basin  of  the 
Rio  de  la  Plata,  we  are  bound  to  be  struck  with  the 
thought  that  the  admixture  of  Indian  blood  must  count 
for  something.  The  negro  element,  never  numerically 
strong,  appears  to  have  been  completely  absorbed. 
There  is  very  little  trace  of  African  blood.  On  the 
other  hand,  without  leaving  Buenos  Aires,  you  can 
not  fail  to  be  struck  by  some  handsome  half-castes  to 
be  seen  in  the  police  force  and  fire  brigade,  for  exam- 
ple, and  the  regularity  of  their  delicate  features  is 
very  noticeable  to  even  the  observer  who  is  least  pre- 
pared for  it.     The  Indian  of  South  America,  though 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  MORALS       177 

closely  akin  to  the  redskin  of  the  North,  is  infinitely 
his  superior.  He  had,  indeed,  created  a  form  of 
civilization,  to  which  the  conquistadores  put  a  brutal 
end.  There  still  subsist  in  the  northern  provinces  of 
the  Argentine  some  fairly  large  native  settlements 
which  receive  but  scant  consideration  from  the  gov- 
ernment. I  heard  too  much  on  the  subject  to  doubt 
the  truth  of  this.  Not  but  what  many  savage  deeds 
can  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  Indians,  as,  for  ex- 
ample, the  abominable  trap  they  laid  for  the  peaceful 
Crevaux  Mission  in  Bolivia  which  led  to  the  massacre 
of  all  its  members.  Still,  in  equity  we  must  remember 
that  those  who  have  recourse  to  final  argument  of 
brute  force  are  helping  to  confirm  the  savages  in  the 
habit  of  using  it.  In  the  interest  of  the  higher  sen- 
timentality we  must  all  deplore  this.  But  our  im- 
placable civilization  has  passed  sentence  on  all  races 
that  are  unable  to  adapt  themselves  to  our  form  of 
social  evolution,  and  from  that  verdict  there  is  no 
appeal. 

Not  that  the  native  of  the  South  is  incapable,  like 
his  brother  of  the  North,  of  performing  a  daily  task. 
I  saw  many  natives  among  the  hands  employed  by 
M.  Hilleret  in  his  factories  in  Tucuman.  Neither  can 
it  be  said  that  there  is  any  lack  of  intelligence  in  the 
Indian.  But  the  fact  remains  that  he  finds  a  difficulty 
in  bending  the  faculties  which  have  grown  rigid  in  the 
circle  of  a  primitive  state  of  existence  to  the  better 
forms  of  our  own  daily  work,  and  this  renders  it  im- 
possible for  him  to  carve  out  a  place  for  himself  in 


178  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

the  sunlight  under  the  new  social  organism  imported 
from  Europe  by  the  white  men.  With  greater  power 
of  resistance  than  the  redskins  of  the  other  continent, 
he,  like  them,  is  doomed  to  disappear.  Yet  in  one  re- 
spect he  has  been  more  fortunate  than  his  kinsman  of 
the  North,  and  will  never  entirely  die  out,  for  he  has 
already  inoculated  with  his  blood  the  flesh  of  the 
victors. 

I  am  not  going  to  pretend  to  settle  in  a  word  the 
problem  of  the  fusion  of  the  races.  I  will  only  ob- 
serve that  the  inrush  of  Indian  blood  in  the  masses — 
and  also  to  a  very  considerable  extent  in  the  upper 
classes — can  not  fail  to  leave  a  permanent  trace  in  the 
Argentine  type,  notwithstanding  the  steady  current  of 
immigration.  And  if  I  were  asked  to  say  what  were 
the  elemental  qualities  contributed  to  the  coming  race 
by  a  native  strain,  I  should  be  inclined  to  think  that 
the  Indian's  simplicity,  dignity,  nobility,  and  decision 
of  character  might  modify  in  the  happiest  way  the 
turbulent  European  blood  of  future  generations. 

After  all,  the  Argentino  who  declines  to  be  Span- 
ish has,  perhaps,  very  good  reasons  for  his  action. 
Here,  he  has  succeeded,  better  than  in  the  Iberian 
Peninsula,  in  ridding  himself  of  the  Moorish  strain, 
which,  though  it  gave  him  his  lofty  chivalry,  has  yet 
enchained  him  to  the  oriental  conception  of  a  rigid 
theocracy.  Why  should  not  native  blood  have  taken 
effect  already  upon  the  European  mixture,  and,  with 
the  aid  of  those  unknown  forces  which  we  may  class 
under  the  collective  term  of  ''climate,"  have  prepared 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,   MANNERS,  MORALS       179 

and  formed  a  new  people  to  be  known  henceforth  by 
.the  obviously  suitable  name  of  "Argentinos" ?  All  I 
can  say  is  that  there  are  Argentine  characteristics  now 
plainly  visible  in  this  conglomeration  of  the  Latin 
races.  The  objection  may  be  that  the  ''Yankee"  shows 
equally  strongly  marked  characteristics  which  distin- 
guish him  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  stock,  while  we 
know  that  he  is  unaffected  by  other  than  European 
strains.  This  is  undeniable,  and  in  his  case  soil,  cli- 
mate, and  the  unceasing  admixture  of  European  types 
suffice  to  explain  modifications  which  are  apparently 
converging  towards  the  creation  of  a  new  type. 

It  is  easier  to  generalize  about  the  Argentine  char- 
acter than  to  penetrate  beneath  its  surface.  It  is  nat- 
urally in  "society,"  where  refinement  is  the  highest, 
that  traits  which  best  lend  themselves  to  generaliza- 
tion are  to  be  seen  in  strongest  relief.  The  American 
of  the  North  is,  above  all,  highly  hospitable.  If  you 
have  a  letter  of  introduction,  his  house  is  open  to  you 
at  once.  He  establishes  you  under  his  roof  and  then 
leaves  you  to  your  own  devices,  while  keeping  himself 
free  to  continue  his  daily  occupation.  The  Argentino 
receives  you  as  kindly,  though  with  more  reserve. 
Although  I  know  but  little  of  the  business  world,  I 
saw  enough  of  it  to  gather  that  money  enjoys  as  much 
favor  there  as  in  any  other  country;  but  the  pursuit 
of  wealth  is  there  tempered  by  an  indulgent  kindliness 
that  greatly  softens  all  personal  relations,  and  the 
asperities  of  the  struggle  for  life  are  smoothed  by  a 
universal  gentleness  charming  to  encounter. 


180  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

In  their  family  relations  the  difference  between  the 
social  ideals  of  the  North  and  South  American  are 
plainly  visible.  The  family  tie  appears  to  be  stronger 
in  the  Argentine  than,  perhaps,  in  any  other  land. 
The  rich,  unlike  those  of  other  countries,  take  pleasure 
in  having  large  families.  One  lady  boasted  in  my 
presence  of  having  thirty-four  descendants — <:hildren 
and  grandchildren — gathered  round  her  table.  Every- 
where family  anniversaries  are  carefully  observed, 
and  all  take  pleasure  in  c^^lebrating  them.  The  great- 
est affection  prevails  and  the  greatest  devotion  to  the 
parent  roof-tree.  Not  that  the  Argentine  woman 
would  appear  to  be  a  particularly  admirable  mother 
according  to  our  standard;  for,  on  the  contrary,  it  is 
said  that  her  children  are  turned  out  into  the  world 
with  very  bad  manners.  How,  then,  are  we  to  ex- 
plain the  contradictory  fact  that  such  children  become 
the  most  courteous  of  men?  Perhaps  a  certain  wild- 
ness  in  youth  should  be  regarded  as  the  noisy,  but  salu- 
tary apprenticeship  to  liberty. 

All  that  can  be  seen  of  the  public  morals  is  most 
favorable.  The  women — generally  extremely  hand- 
some in  a  super-Spanish  way,  and  often  fascinating — 
enjoy  a  reputation,  that  seems  well  justified,  of  being 
extremely  virtuous.  I  heard  too  much  good  about 
them  to  think  any  evil.  They  were,  from  what  I 
could  see,  too  carefully  removed  from  the  danger  of 
conventional  sins  for  me  to  be  able  to  add  the  per- 
sonal testimony  that  I  have  no  doubt  they  merit. 
As  to  their  feelings,  or  passions,  if  I  may  venture  to 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,   MANNERS,  MORALS       181 

use  the  word,  I  know  nothing.  Are  they  capable  of 
the  self-abandonment  of  love,  of  experiencing  all  its 
joy  and  all  its  pain — inseparable  as  these  but  too  often 
are?  They  did  not  tell  me,  so  I  shall  never  know. 
The  most  I  can  say  is  that  they  did  not  give  me  the 
impression  of  being  made  for  the  violent  reactions  of 
life  as  it  is  known  in  America  and  Europe.  I  hope  no 
one  will  see  in  this  statement  a  shadow  of  criticism. 
It  is,  indeed,  a  compliment  if  you  will  admit  that  in 
an  Argentine  family  love's  dream  is  realized  in  the 
natural,  orderly  course  of  events.  But  if  it  were  oth- 
erwise, it  would  still  be  to  the  highest  credit  of  the 
women  that  in  their  role  of  faithful  guardians  of  the 
hearth  they  have  been  able  to  silence  calumny  and 
inspire  universal  respect  by  the  purity  and  dignity  of 
their  lives. 

Above  all  do  not  imagine  that  these  charming 
women  are  devoid  of  conversational  talent.  Some  ill- 
natured  critics  have  given  them  a  bad  reputation  in 
this  respect.  Their  principal  occupation  is  evidently 
paying  visits,  and  they  gossip  as  best  they  can  under 
the  circumstances,  considering  that  neither  their 
friends  nor  their  foes  give  any  ground  for  tittle- 
tattle.  This  deficit  might  cause  conversation  to  lan- 
guish. Dress  and  news  from  the  Rue  de  la  Paix  are 
a  never- failing  topic.  It  is  also  said  that  financial 
topics  come  up  for  their  consideration,  since  the 
women  are  as  free  to  speculate  in  land  as  are  the  men. 
They  are  superstitious,  too,  and  are  supposed  to  attach 
great  importance  to  knowing  exactly  what  must  not 


182  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

be  done  on  any  given  day  of  the  week,  or  to  what  saint 
they  should  address  their  petitions.  Besides,  the  many 
works  of  public  charity  in  which  the  ladies  of  Buenos 
Aires  take  a  share  would  account  for  much  time  and 
also  for  much  talk. 

Argentino  men  are  as  amiable  as  their  wives,  ex- 
cept that  they  are  jealous.  If  by  chance,  after  dinner, 
you  remain  chatting  quietly  with  one  or  two  ladies, 
and  in  the  inevitable  ebb  and  flow  of  a  salon  you  find 
yourself  for  a  moment  left  alone  with  a  lady,  be  sure 
that  her  husband,  more  genial  than  ever,  will  promptly 
appear  on  the  scene  to  claim  his  share  in  the  talk. 

Not  much  can  be  said  of  the  Argentine  girl,  for 
she  is  not  much  in  evidence  except  in  the  home  and  at 
an  occasional  concert.  She  remains  on  the  edge  of 
society  until  the  day  of  her  marriage.  At  the  same 
time,  the  Argentine  girl  must  not  be  supposed  to  re- 
semble very  closely  her  sister  in  Latin  Europe.  Less 
educated,  perhaps,  but  more  vivacious  and  less  timidly 
reserved,  she  shows  greater  independence  at  Mar  del 
Plata,  which  is  the  sole  meeting-place  for  wealthier 
families,  since  the  Pampas  offer  no  resource  outside 
the  estancia.  At  the  Colon  Theater  and  at  the  opera 
she  is  seated  well  in  view  in  front  of  the  box,  making 
the  whole  ground  floor  an  immense  basket  of  berib- 
boned  flowers,  and  there,  under  the  eye  of  her  parents, 
the  young  men  who  are  friends  of  her  family  are  per- 
mitted to  pay  their  respects  to  her.  It  is  said  that  she 
makes  use  of  borrowed  charms,  applied  with  puff  and 
pencil. 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  MORALS       183 

In  Argentine,  gambling  is  a  universal  evil.  The 
form  of  gambling  which  is  special  is  land  speculation. 
It  is  constantly  stated  that  all  the  work  of  Buenos 
Aires  and  the  Pampas  is  done  by  foreigners,  while 
the  Argentino  himself  sits  waiting  for  the  value  of  his 
land  to  treble,  quadruple,  decuple  his  fortune  without 
effort  on  his  part.  This  might  easily  be  true  since  the 
value  of  property  has  risen  with  giddy  rapidity  of  late 
years. 

But  while  there  is  no  denying  that  land  speculation 
occupies  a  special  place  in  Argentine  life  today,  it  is 
also  incontestable  that  all  ranks  of  society  are  here,  as 
elsewhere,  devoting  their  energy  to  some  great  agri- 
cultural, commercial,  or  cattle-rearing  enterprise.  The 
estancia  needs  a  head.  Herds  of  ten  thousand  cows 
must  be  well  looked  after  if  they  are  to  be  productive 
in  their  three  departments — dairy,  meat,  or  breeding. 
The  magnificent  exhibits  to  be  seen  at  shows  are  not 
raised  by  the  sole  grace  of  God,  and  the  Argentinos 
speak  of  their  estancias  with  a  wealth  of  detail  that 
shows  a  close  interest,  ever  on  the  watch  for  improve- 
ments. Yet  th^y  have  other  interests  which  claim  part 
of  their  time,  and  are  ever  ready  to  discuss  topics  of 
general  interest  that  happen  to  be  engrossing  the  at- 
tention of  Europe  and  the  United  States. 

The  growing  interest  taken  in  all  kinds  of  labor 
on  the  soil  and  the  need  of  perfecting  strains  of  cat- 
tle both  for  breeding  and  for  meat  have  led  the  larger 
owners  to  group  themselves  into  a  club,  which  they 
call  the  Jockey  Club.    The  name  suffices  to  denote  the 


184  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

aristocratic  pretensions  of  an  institution  that  has, 
nevertheless  rendered  important  services  to  the  cause, 
as  well  for  horned  cattle  as  for  horses.  The  sump- 
tuous fittings  lack  that  rich  simplicity  in  which  the 
English  delight.  The  decorations  are  borrowed  from 
Europe,  but  the  working  of  the  club  is  wholly  Ameri- 
can. The  greatest  comfort  reigns  in  all  departments 
of  the  palace,  whose  luxury  is  not  allowed  to  dissem- 
ble itself.  The  cuisine  is  thoroughly  Parisian.  Fine 
drawing-rooms,  in  which  the  light  is  pleasantly  dif- 
fused. A  large  rotunda  in  Empire  style  is  the  show- 
place  of  the  club,  but,  like  Napoleon  himself,  it  lacks 
moderation.  A  severe-looking  library,  reading-rooms, 
banqueting-rooms,  etc.,  complete  the  club  building. 

To  explain  the  amount  of  money  either  amassed 
or  flung  away  here,  it  must  be  remembered  that  all 
the  receipts  taken  at  the  race-courses — less  a  small 
tax  to  the  government — come  back  to  the  Jockey  Club, 
which  is  at  liberty  to  dispose  of  them  at  will.  Hence 
the  large  fortune  of  the  establishment,  which  has  just 
purchased  a  piece  of  land  in  the  best  part  of  Buenos 
Aires,  for  which  it  gave  seven  millions ;  and  here  it  is 
proposed  to  erect  a  still  grander  palace.  The  building 
they  now  occupy  will  be  presented  to  the  government, 
and  it  is  believed  the  Foreign  Office  will  be  moved 
there. 

In  Argentine,  as  in  Brazil,  the  internal  arrange- 
ments of  the  houses  show  that  the  greater  part  of  the 
time  is  spent  out-of-doors.  Italy,  with  its  open-air 
life,  was  naturally  the  land  to  which  the  Argentine 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  MORALS       185 

turned  for  architects  to  supply  florid  furniture,  meant 
rather  to  look  at  than  to  use;  and  when  to  this  is 
added  cheap  German  goods  with  their  clumsy  designs, 
one  may  be  pardoned  for  finding  a  lack  of  grace  as 
of  comfort.  In  aristocratic  salons  the  best  Parisian 
upholsterers  have  at  least  left  their  mark — with  a  lit- 
tle overcrowding  in  effect,  if  the  truth  must  be  told. 
In  a  few,  where  "antiques"  are  discernible,  there  are 
evidences  of  an  appreciation  of  just  proportions  and 
simplicity.  But  my  criticisms  must  be  taken  in  the 
most  general  way  possible. 

It  is  in  the  hotels  that  one  finds  more  particularly 
a  lack  of  comfort  and  convenience.  A  continual 
change  of  servants  and  a  bad  division  of  labor  ensure 
infinite  discomfort  for  the  traveler.  There  is,  it  is 
true,  central  heating,  but  it  works  badly.  Is  the 
pampero  blowing?  The  pipes  of  the  radiators  shake 
the  window  panes  with  their  tempestuous  snorting 
and  bubbling,  waking  you  out  of  your  sleep  with  the 
suddenness  of  their  noise;  but  they  diffuse  only  cold 
air.  An  electric  heating  apparatus,  hastily  put  in, 
must  be  used  to  supplement  the  other.  Do  you  want 
to  lock  up  some  papers?  You  may,  perhaps,  after  a 
long  search,  find  a  key  in  your  room,  but  it  will  as- 
suredly fit  none  of  the  locks.  As  I  was  tiresome 
enough  to  insist,  the  manager,  anxious  to  oblige  me, 
ordered  his  own  safe  to  be  placed  in  my  apartment, 
with  all  his  accounts  therein.  When  I  found  the 
drawer  that  was  placed  at  my  disposal,  I  found  money 
in  it!    Oh,  marvelous  hospitality! 


186  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

To  the  new  houses  in  the  town,  chimneys  are  being 
added.  Those  who  come  to  the  Argentine  for  the  win- 
ter months — ^June,  July,  and  August — can  but  be  de- 
lighted with  the  change.  But  still  he  suffers  keenly 
from  the  cold,  for  even  if  the  sun  shines  perseveringly 
in  a  cloudless  sky,  an  icy  south  wind  proves  very 
trying. 

It  is  difficult  to  speak  of  Argentine  cookery — which 
is  rather  international  than  local — always  excepting 
those  households  that  boast  of  a  French  chef.  The 
influence  of  Italy,  with  her  macaroni  and  her  cheese, 
predominates.  The  vegetables  are  mediocre ;  the  fruit 
too  tropical,  or,  if  European,  spoilt  by  the  effect  of 
the  tropics.  Lobsters  and  European  fish,  imported 
frozen,  are  not  to  be  recommended ;  table  water  is  ex- 
cellent. The  national  dishes,  puchero,  or  boiled  beef, 
good  when  the  animal  has  not  been  slaughtered  the 
same  morning;  asado,  lamb,  roasted  whole — the  same 
savory  dish  that  is  met  with  in  Greece  under  the  name 
of  lamh  a  la  palikare.  I  might  add  a  long  list  whose 
sole  interest  would  be  the  strange  sounding  names 
given  to  familiar  dishes.  Still,  as  the  main  conditions 
of  man  and  communities  are  necessarily  unvarying,  is 
it  not  in  appearances  and  forms  of  expression  that  we 
find  variety?' 


CHAPTER  XIII 

LIFE  ON  THE   PAMPAS 

EVERY  capital  is  a  world  in  itself — a  world  in 
which  national  and  foreign  elements  blend;  but 
to  understand  the  life  of  a  nation  one  must  go  out 
into  the  country.  A  vast  territory,  ten  times  the  size 
of  France,  extending  from  Patagonia  to  Paraguay 
and  Bolivia,  will  naturally  offer  the  greatest  diversity 
of  soil  and  climate,  representing  differing  conditions 
of  labor  as  well  as  of  customs  and  sometimes  of  mor- 
als. Ancient  Europe  can  in  the  same  way  show  eth- 
nical groups  with  sufficiently  marked  features  which 
a  long  history  has  not  been  able  to  destroy  or  even 
to  modify. 

It  is  quite  another  matter  when,  on  a  continent 
with  no  history  at  all,  you  get  men  of  every  origin 
spread  over  it,  brought  thither  by  a  community  of 
interest  and  the  hope  of  cultivating  the  soil  by  their 
labor.  I  have  already  said  what  racial  characteristics 
subsist.  The  colonist  will,  of  course,  at  first  do  all  he 
can  to  remain  what  the  land  of  his  birth  has  made 
him;  the  first  evidence  of  this  is  his  tendency  to  fall 
into  groups  and  form  national  colonies.  But  the  land 
of  his  adoption  will  in  time  surely  force  upon  him  the 
inevitable  conditions  of  a  new  mode  of  life,  the  very 
necessity  of  adapting  himself  to  changed  conditions 

187 


188  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

making  of  him  a  new  creature,  to  be  later  definitely 
moulded  by  success. 

The  Pampas  are  not  the  Argentine.  They  form, 
however,  so  predominant  a  part  that  they  have  shaped 
the  man  and  the  race  by  imposing  on  them  their  or- 
ganization of  agricultural  labor  and  the  development 
of  their  natural  resources.  While  manufactures  are 
still  in  a  rudimentary  state  and  are  likely  to  remain 
so  for  a  long  time  to  come  owing  to  lack  of  coal,  the 
Pampas  from  the  Andes  to  the  ocean  offer  an  immense 
plain  of  the  same  alluvial  soil  from  end  to  end,  ready 
to  respond  in  the  same  degree  to  the  same  effort  of 
stock-raising  or  agriculture.  An  identical  stretch  of 
unbroken  ground,  with  identical  surface,  identical 
pools  of  subterranean  water,  no  special  features  to 
call  for  other  than  the  unchanging  life  of  the  Campo. 

Naturally,  the  first  experiments  were  made  in  the 
most  rudimentary  fashion  on  the  half-wild  herds  of 
cattle  that  could  not  be  improved  unless  the  European 
market  were  thrown  open.  As  soon  as  this  outlet  was 
assured,  the  whole  effort  of  skill  and  money  was  di- 
rected towards  the  improvement  of  stock,  and  the 
progress  made  in  a  few  years'  work  far  exceeded  the 
brightest  hopes  of  those  early  days.  And  as  at  the 
same  time  a  powerful  impetus  was  given  to  wheat- 
growing,  the  Pampas  from  one  end  to  the  other  of 
their  vast  extent  immediately  took  on  a  dual  aspect: 
cattle  farms  (herds  grazing  on  natural  or  artificial 
pastures),  and  acres  of  grain  (wheat,  oats,  maize,  and 
flax) — this  is  the  only  picture  that  the  Pampas  offer 


LIFE  ON  THE  PAMPAS  189 

or  ever  can  offer  to  the  traveler.  The  system  of  cattle- 
breeding,  primitive  in  the  extreme  at  a  distance  from 
railroads,  improves  in  proportion  as  the  line  draws 
nearer;  wherever  the  iron  road  passes,  there  is  an 
immediate  development  of  land  under  cultivation. 

All  this  goes  to  make  up  a  man  of  the  Campo — • 
the  estanciero,  colonist,  peon,  gaucho,  or  whatever 
other  name  he  may  be  called.  Certain  conditions 
of  living  and  working  are  forced  upon  him  from  which 
there  is  no  escape.  Whether  landed  proprietor, 
farmer,  servant,  or  agricultural  laborer,  the  vastness 
of  the  plain  which  opens  up  in  front  of  him,  the  dis- 
tance between  inhabited  dwellings,  the  roughness  of 
the  roads,  leave  him  no  other  means  of  communication 
but  the  horse,  which  abounds  everywhere  and  can  be 
unceremoniously  borrowed  on  occasion.  The  man  of 
the  Campo  is  a  horseman.  He  is  certainly  not  an  ele- 
gant horseman,  whose  riding  woiild  be  appreciated  at 
a  cavalry  school.  No  curb;  only  a  plain  bit  is  used, 
whose  first  effort  is  to  bring  down  the  animal's  head 
and  throw  him  out  of  balance,  while  his  rider,  to  rem- 
edy this  defect,  raises  his  hands  as  high  as  his  head. 
To  the  unsightliness  of  this  picture  is  added  an  un- 
stable seat.  As  very  often  happens  in  similar  circum- 
stances, instinct  and  determination  more  or  less  mak- 
ing up  for  all  mistakes,  the  rider  manages  approxi- 
mately to  keep  on  his  beast's  back,  thanks  partly  to 
the  fact  that  the  horse  is  rarely  required  to  go  at  more 
than  a  moderate  pace  over  level  ground.  The  hoof 
never  by  any  chance  can  strike  on  a  stone,  though  it 


190  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

may  be  caught  in  a  hole ;  the  active  little  creole  horse 
excels  in  avoiding  this  danger.  One  can  ask  no  more 
of  him. 

On  his  enormous  saddle  of  sheepskin,  the  peon  or 
gaucho,  his  hat  pulled  well  down  over  his  eyes,  his 
shoulders  draped  in  the  folds  of  the  poncho, — a  blan- 
ket with  a  hole  in  it  for  the  head  to  pass  through, — 
is  encumbered  with  a  whip  whose  handle  serves  on 
occasion  as  a  mallet,  and  a  lasso,  with  or  without  metal 
balls,  coiled  behind  his  saddle.  He  makes  a  pictur- 
esque enough  figure  in  the  motonous  expanse  of  earth 
and  sky,  where  rancho  or  tree,  beast  or  man,  stand  out 
in  high  relief  against  a  background  of  glaring  light. 
Without  sign  or  syllable,  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  empty 
horizon,  the  man  passes  through  the  silence  of  infinite 
solitude,  rising  like  a  ghost  from  the  nothingness  of 
the  horizon  at  one  point  to  sink  again  into  nothingness 
at  another.  When  riding  in  a  troop,  they  talk  together 
in  low  tones.  There  are  none  of  those  outbursts  of 
fun  that  you  might  expect  in  a  land  of  sunshine.  It 
is  the  gravity  natural  to  men  brought  face  to  face  with 
Nature  in  the  pitiless  light  of  sky  and  earth  where  no 
fold  or  break  in  the  surface  arrests  the  glance  or  fixes 
the  attention. 

Still  there  are  those  gigantic  herds  of  horned  cat- 
tle or  horses  which  fill  an  appreciable  portion  of  the 
melancholy  plain — "green  in  winter,  yellow  in  sum- 
mer." When  you  talk  of  a  herd  of  ten  thousand 
cows,  you  make  some  impression  even  on  a  big  farmer. 
Well,  I  can  assure  you  that  ten  thousand  head  of  cattle 


LIFE  ON  THE  PAMPAS  191 

is  a  small  affair  out  on  the  Pampas.  You  see  a  dark 
shadow  on  the  horizon  that  might  be  either  a  village 
or  a  group  of  haycocks,  until  the  vague  shifting  of  the 
mass  suggests  to  your  mind  the  idea  of  some  form  of 
life.  The  lines  show  clearer,  groups  break  off  and 
stand  out,  pointed  horns  appear,  and  at  last  you  find 
you  are  watching  the  tranquil  passage  of  a  monstrous 
herd,  whose  outlines  are  stenciled  in  black  upon  the 
whiteness  of  the  sky-line  like  Chinese  shadow  pic- 
tures. So  distinct  are  the  shapes  here  that  you  lose 
the  sense  of  distance  and  are  astonished  at  the  har- 
mony of  nonchalant  impulse,  as  irresistible  as  slow, 
which  can  thus  set  in  movement  this  huge  living  mass 
that  makes  its  pass  before  us  like  a  vision  of  Fate.  The 
dream  fantasy  is  the  more  striking  because  it  changes 
so  rapidly.  Withdraw  your  eyes  a  moment  from  the 
picture,  and  it  is  entirely  altered.  The  heavy  mass  of 
migrating  cattle  seem  now  to  have  taken  root  at  the 
opposite  extremity  of  the  horizon,  while  in  the  depths 
of  the  luminous  distance  shadowy  patches  of  haze 
more  or  less  distinct  betoken  further  living  bodies, 
some  stationary,  some  in  motion.  These  are  mirages 
of  the  Pampas  of  which  no  one  takes  heed ;  but  upon 
me  they  made  a  powerful  impression,  for  I  saw  in 
them  the  whole  tragedy  of  this  land,  from  the  tuft  of 
grass  on  which  the  eyes  of  the  beast  first  saw  the  light 
down  to  the  last  step  of  that  fateful  journey  which 
ends  at  the  slide  of  the  slaughter-house. 

Of  Nature's  scourges,  the  drouth  is  the  most  to  be 
feared,  for  it  falls  with  fearful  suddenness  on  great 


192  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

stretches  of  the  Campo.  In  the  absence  of  rain, 
neither  turf  nor  forage  nor  harvest  can  be  looked  for ; 
for  the  cattle,  death  is  certain.  Winter  in  any  case 
is  a  hard  season  for  them.  Their  coats  lose  their  gloss, 
their  flanks  fall  in,  and  their  pointed  bones  witness  to 
their  sufferings,  which  the  icy  breath  of  the  pampero 
does  nothing  to  assuage.  With  the  spring  comes  the 
hope  of  rain.  But  if  this  hope  is  betrayed,  nothing 
can  save  innumerable  herds  from  starvation  and  death. 
Forage  is  always  stored  for  the  more  precious  of  the 
stock,  but  to  feed  the  herd  is  out  of  the  question. 
The  Pampas  then  becomes  one  vast  cemetery  where 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  dead  cattle  are  lying  in 
heaps  beyond  all  possibility  of  burial.  It  is  the  custom 
to  leave  the  body  of  the  beast  that  dies  by  the  way  to 
the  tender  mercies  of  the  wind  and  the  sun,  the  rain 
and  the  earth,  into  whose  wide-open  pores  the  remains 
are  little  by  little  absorbed.  The  birds  of  prey  and 
dogs  are  valuable  assistants,  but  wholly  insufficient. 

The  railways  that  extend  into  the  Pampas  have  not 
materially  changed  things.  True,  they  have  done  away 
with  long  and  tiresome  rides,  have  furnished  a  means 
of  transportation  for  the  produce  of  the  Pampas,  and 
have  made  possible  more  furniture  for  the  ranches. 
And  yet  the  furniture  in  the  Pampas  homes  is  still 
meager  enough.  In  the  huts  of  the  half-castes  near 
Tucuman,  the  only  piece  of  furniture  I  saw  was  a  pair 
of  trestles,  on  which  was  laid  the  mat  which  served  as 
seat,  bed,  or  table — the  kitchen  being  always  outside. 

In  the  Pampas,  dwellings  that  look  modest,  and 


LIFE  ON  THE  PAMPAS  193 

even  less  than  modest,  generally  boast  an  easy-chair, 
a  chest  of  drawers,  with  a  clock,  a  sewing-machine, 
and  gramophone,  which,  when  fortune  comes,  is  com- 
pleted by  a  piano.  The  gramophone  is  the  theater  of 
the  Pampas.  It  brings  with  it  orchestra,  songs, 
words,  and  the  whole  equipment  of  *'art"  suited  to  the 
aesthetic  sense  of  its  hearers.  Thus,  on  all  sides,  dread- 
ful nasal  sounds  twang  out,  to  the  great  joy  of  the 
youth  of  the  colony. 

The  morals  of  the  Campo  are  what  the  conditions 
of  life  there  have  made  them.  Men  who  are  crowded 
together  in  large  cities  are  exposed  to  many  tempta- 
tions. When  too  far  removed  from  the  restraint  of 
public  opinion,  the  danger  is  no  less  great.  In  all 
circumstances  a  witness,  nine  times  out  of  ten,  becomes 
an  accomplice.  Between  the  menace  of  a  distant  and 
vague  police  force  and  the  ever-present  fear  of  the 
Indian,  the  gaucho  became  a  soldier  of  fortune,  pr2- 
pared  for  any  bold  stroke.  With  his  dagger  in  his 
belt,  his  gun  on  his  shoulder,  and  the  lasso  on  his 
saddle-bow,  he  rode  over  the  eternal  prairie  in  search 
of  adventures,  and  ready  at  any  minute  for  the  dramn 
that  might  be  awaiting  him.  To  his  other  qualities 
must  be  added  a  generous  hospitality,  that  dispensed 
to  all  comers  his  more  or  less  well-gotten  goods;  he 
had  in  him  the  material  for  an  admirable  leader  in 
revolutionary  times.  I  saw  no  revolutions  and  hope 
that  Argentine  is  finished  with  them  forever;  but  the 
periodic  explosions  that  have  taken  place  there  are  not 
so  ancient  but  that  an  echo  of  them  reached  my  ears 


194  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

I  shall  leave  ou?  of  the  question,  of  course,  all  remote 
circumstances  that  might  serve  at  hazzard  to  put  a 
body  of  adventurers  in  motion.  You  were  on  the  side 
of  General  X  or  General  Z,  according  to  the  hopes  of 
the  party ;  but,  in  reality,  that  had  little  to  do  with  it. 
"When  the  signal  was  once  given,  a  military  force  had 
to  be  organized  and  the  means  adopted  were  admirably 
simple.  Any  weapon  that  could  be  of  use  in  battle 
was  picked  up,  and  a  band  would  present  themselves 
at  the  door  of  an  estancia, 

"We  are  for  General  X.  All  the  peons  here  must 
follow  us.    To  arms !    To  horse !" 

And  the  order  would  be  obeyed;  otherwise,  the 
estancia  and  its  herds  would  suffer.  With  such  a  sys- 
tem of  recruiting,  troops  were  quickly  collected,  and 
a  few  such  visits  would  suffice  to  bring  together  a 
very  respectable  force  of  men.  My  friend  Biessy, 
the  artist,  with  whom  I  had  the  pleasure  of  making 
the  journey,  witnessed  such  a  scene  one  day  at  an 
estancia  which  he  was  visiting.  He  was  chatting  with 
the  overseer  when  the  man,  hearing  a  suspicious  sound, 
flung  himself  down  and  put  his  ear  to  the  ground. 
A  moment  later  he  rose,  looking  anxious. 

*'There  are  horsemen  galloping  this  way.  What 
can  have  happened?*"'  and  sure  enough  a  minute  later 
there  appeared  a  band  of  men  so  oddly  equipped  that 
at  first  they  were  taken  for  masqueraders.  It  was 
carnival  time.  The  leader,  however,  came  forward 
and  called  on  the  overseer  to  place  all  his  peons  at 
the  service  of  the  revolutionaries.    Biessy  himself  only 


LIFE  ON  THE  PAMPAS  195 

escaped  by  claiming  the  rights  of  a  FrencH  citizen. 
And  do  not  imagine  that  all  this  was  a  comedy.  The 
dominant  sentiment  in  their  camp  was  by  no  means 
a  respect  for  human  life.  On  both  sides  these  brave 
peons  fought  furiously,  asking  no  questions  about  the 
party  in  whose  cause  they  happened  to  be  enrolled. 
The  overseer  of  the  neighboring  estancia,  who  was 
talking  with  M.  Biessy  when  called  to  parley  with  the 
revolutionaries,  was  shot  dead  a  few  hours  later  for 
having  offered  resistance  to  them. 

If  men  are  thus  unceremoniously  enrolled,  it  may 
be  imagined  the  horses  are  borrowed  still  more  freely. 
A  curious  thing  is  that  when  the  war  is  over,  and  these 
creatures  are  again  at  liberty,  they  find  their  way  back 
quite  easily  to  their  own  pastures.  The  overseer  of 
one  estancia  told  me  that  the  last  revolution  had  cost 
him  six  hundred  horses,  of  which  four  hundred,  that 
had  been  taken  to  a  distance  of  from  two  hundred  to 
three  hundred  kilometers,  returned  of  their  own  ac- 
cord. How  they  contrived  to  steer  their  course  over 
the  Pampas,  with  their  inextricable  tangle  of  wire 
fencing,  I  do  not  undertake  to  explain.  When  I  in- 
quired of  the  overseer  whether  it  were  not  possible  to 
steal  one  of  his  horses  without  being  discovered,  he 
replied,  "Oh,  it  is  like  picking  an  apple  in  Normandy ! 
It  often  happens  that  a  traveler  on  a  tired  horse  las- 
soes another  to  continue  his  journey.  But  on  reaching 
his  destination  he  sets  the  animal  at  liberty,  and  he 
invariably  makes  his  way  back  to  the  herd." 

There  was  a  time  when  the  gaucho  would  fell 


196  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

an  ox  to  obtain  a  steak  for  luncK.  In  some  of  the 
more  remote  districts  it  is  possible  that  the  custom 
still  subsists.  But  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  a  grow- 
ing civilization  and  the  railway,  which  is  its  most  ef- 
fectual and  rapid  instrument,  are  changing  the  gaucho, 
together  with  his  surroundings  and  his  sphere  of  ac- 
tion. The  gaucho  on  foot  is  very  like  any  other  man. 
Hiis  flowing  necktie  of  brilliant  color,  once  the  party 
signal,  has  been  toned  down.  His  poncho,  admirably 
adapted  to  the  climatic  conditions  of  camp  life  in  the 
Campo,  is  now  used  by  the  townsmen,  who  throw  it 
over  their  arm  or  shoulder  according  to  the  variations 
in  the  temperature.  The  sombrero,  like  the  slashed 
breeches  or  high  boots,  is  no  longer  distinctive.  There 
remains  only  the  heavy  stirrup  of  romantic  design, 
more  or  less  artistically  ornamented,  but  now  often 
replaced  by  a  simple  ring  of  rope  or  iron.  The  days 
of  roystering  glamor  are  passed.  The  heavy  roller  of 
civilization  levels  all  the  elements  of  modern  existence 
to  make  way  for  the  utilitarian  but  insesthetic  triumph 
of  uniformity.  Yet  a  little  longer  and  the  life  of  the 
Campo  will  be  nothing  but  a  memory,  for  with  his 
picturesque  dress  the  type  itself  is  disappearing. 

The  modern  gaucho  has  preserved  from  his  an- 
cestors the  slowness  in  speech,  the  reserved  manner, 
and  scrutinizing  eye  of  the  man  who  lives  on  the  de- 
fensive. But  today  he  is  thoroughly  civilized,  and  can 
stroll  down  Florida  Street,  in  Buenos  Aires,  without 
attracting  any  attention.  It  is  in  vain  that  the  theater 
seeks  to  reproduce  the  life  of  the  Campo,  as  we  oc- 


LIFE  ON  THE  PAMPAS  197 

casionally  see  it  doing.  What  can  it  show  us  beyond 
the  eternal  comedy  of  love,  or  the  absurdities  of  the 
wife  of  the  gaucho  who  has  too  suddenly  acquired  a 
fortune?  Both  subjects  belong  to  all  times  and  all 
countries,  in  the  same  way  as  every  dance  and  every 
song  are  common  to  any  assembly  of  young  humanity. 
Long  before  the  gramaphone  was  invented  the  guitar 
was  the  joy  of  Spanish  ears  to  the  farthest  confines  of 
the  Pampas.  Between  tv/o  outbreaks  of  the  civil  war, 
when  men  were  rushing  madly  to  death,  joyous  songs 
and  plaintive  refrains  alternated  beneath  the  branches 
of  the  ombu,  where  the  youth  of  the  district  met,  and 
the  sudden  dramas  of  the  ranch  made  them  the  more 
eager  to  drink  deep  of  the  pleasure  they  knew  to  be 
fleeting.  They  danced  the  Pericou  and  the  Tango,  as 
they  still  do  today ;  but  the  audacious  gestures  in  which 
amorous  Spain  gave  expression  to  the  ardor  of  its 
feelings  have  now  passed  into  the  domain  of  history. 
The  "Creole  balls,"  where  may  be  seen  graceful  young 
girls  in  soft  white  draperies,  dancing  in  a  chain  that 
resembles  the  French  Pastourelle,  have  been  repro- 
duced on  post  cards  and  are  familiar  to  all.  There  are, 
there  will  ever  be  in  the  Pampas — at  least,  I  fondly 
hope  so — graceful  young  girls  dressed  in  white  and 
destined  to  rouse  the  love  instinct  which  never  seems 
to  sleep  in  an  Italian  or  Spanish  breast.*'* 


CHAPTER  XIV 

VENEZUELA   AND  THE  VENEZUELANS 

AT  Citmana,  in  the  middle  east  of  Venezuela,  is 
the  oldest  European  settlement  in  America.  The 
town  was  founded  in  1512  by  the  Spaniards,  but  was 
abandoned  when  the  pugnacious  Indians  refused  to  be 
immediately  converted  and  enslaved,  so  that  Panama, 
founded  in  1519,  has  been  the  oldest  continuous  habi- 
tation. But  Cumana  was  reinvested,  and  for  almost 
four  centuries  it  has  watched  the  forces  of  the  West- 
ern World  trying  to  penetrate  the  tough  crust  of  tra- 
dition brought  over  by  the  Spanish  along  with  their 
search  for  gold.  Past  the  island  of  Trinidad,  along 
this  coast,  Columbus  made  his  third  voyage  in  1498, 
and  undoubtedly  his  first  glimpse  of  the  mainland,  if 
not  the  only  place  where  he  set  foot,  was  near  Cu- 
mana in  Venezuela.  Las  Casas,  the  one  true  friend 
of  the  Indian,  and  alas !  the  reputed  father  of  Ameri- 
can slavery,  was  a  priest  in  Cumana. 

The  settlements  grew  and  flourished  in  the  valleys ; 
Maracaibo  was  founded  in  1529,  and  thereafter  were 
planted  interior  cities  as  far  as  the  slope  of  the  Andes 
at  San  Cristobal  in  1561,  but  always  it  was  El  Dorado 
that  lured.  These  cities  nestling  among  brown  hills, 
formed  the  Spanish  Main,  and  when  the  baroneted 
pirates  of  England  and  Holland  were  not  engaged  in 

198 


VENEZUELA  AND  THE  VENEZUELANS  199 

the  spiderish  pastime  of  capturing  galleons  with 
Pacific  treasures,  they  enjoyed  themselves  by  landing 
on  the  coast  and  sacking  the  seemingly  secure  abodes 
of  those  who  collected  gold  nearer  at  hand.  Not  a 
league  of  the  two  hundred  miles  east  and  west  of  the 
Silla  but  has  history  of  battle  and  wreck,  and  sunken 
treasure ;  not  a  valley  with  its  cathedral  spire  but  can 
tell  of  sack,  ambuscade,  slaughter,  and  buried  pieces- 
of -eight. 

The  Indians,  driven  to  despair  by  the  pious  cruel- 
ties of  the  conquerors,  revolted  when  they  could  stand 
no  more;  the  mestizos,  ignored  by  the  overlords  of 
purer  blood,  revolted  when  with  indignity  they  were 
denied  the  exercise  of  those  very  rights  which  the 
government  of  Spain  had  put  on  paper  for  their  bene- 
fit. The  whole  colony  of  Nueva  Granada  revolted 
against  the  mother  country  when  every  promise  had 
been  denied  them,  and  decency  in  foreign  rule  had 
ceased  to  be  even  a  phrase  in  the  council  of  Sevilla. 

From  the  earliest  times  to  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century  Spain  had  only  exploited  her  colo- 
nies; her  rulers  knew  nothing  of  them  except  that 
those  who  did  not  die  there  came  home  rich  after 
some  years  of  a  government  clerkship.  Misrule  and 
revolt  were  as  familiar  in  the  New  Spain  as  they 
were  in  the  Old — and  then  the  separation  came. 

Caracas  —  Venezuela  —  is  the  cradle  of  South 
American  liberty.  Bolivar,  Miranda,  and  Sucre  are 
three  truly  noble  heroes;  yet  Bolivar  died  a  disap- 
pointed man,  Miranda's  life  ended  in  a  Spanish  prison, 


200  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

and  Sucre  was  assassinated  after  serving  three  new 
nations  honorably  and  well.  The  only  practical  in- 
heritance they  have  given  to  liberty  is  license  and  re~ 
volt.  The  lesson  Spain  had  not  learned  and  which 
Spanish  America  is  so  slow  to  learn,  is  the  simple  one 
of  obedience  to  law.  From  the  day  that  Bolivar 
aroused  the  revolutionary  forces  in  1810  till  the  sepa- 
ration of  Venezuela  from  Nueva  Granada,  history  re- 
cords fighting,  dictatorships,  and  rebellion.  There  was 
righteousness  in  it,  too,  because  the  Spanish  royalists 
violated  their  treaties  and  so  abused  the  patriots,  who 
were  eager  to  accept  a  decent  peace,  that  revolt  was 
the  only  resort. 

The  first  constitution  of  1820,  for  the  countries 
known  as  Ecuador,  Colombia,  and  Venezuela,  was  a 
replica  of  that  of  the  United  States,  with  a  more  cen- 
tralized government.  This  was  soon  broken  by  the 
military  authority  of  Bolivar  himself.  Bolivar  quar- 
reled with  Peru  and  Ecuador — a  logical  consequence 
of  the  enormous  extent  of  the  region  his  ambition  and 
popularity  had  placed  under  his  nominal  control.  The 
Captain  General  of  Caracas  grew  jealous  of.  Bogota 
(Colombia)  and  in  1829  threatened  to  withdraw  from 
the  federation.  Quito  did  withdraw,  and  when  Bolivar 
died,  in  1830,  the  inchoate  mass  fell  to  pieces,  leaving 
the  three  nations  as -we  now  know  them — Ecuador, 
Colombia,  and  Venezuela. 

Venezuela  dates  its  independence  as  a  fighting  na- 
tion from  1831.  Paez  was  its  first  president.  Since 
then,   seventy-six  intervening  years  have  seen  fifty- 


VENEZUELA  AND  THE  VENEZUELANS  201 

two  revolutions  and  twenty-six  presidencies,  some- 
times called  constitutional,  sometimes  provisional,  with 
a  cheerful  intermixture  of  liberators,  restorers  and 
dictators  for  good  measures.  In  this  brief  chapter  we 
can  not  follow  Venezuela's  fortunes  of  war,  rebellion, 
and  intrigue  that  involved  the  past  three  generations. 
We  migTit  give  a  list  of  the  revolutions  and  their  lead- 
ers, but  this  would  be  useless  unless  we  could  enter 
into  a  consideration  of  the  deeper  forces  that  underlay 
this  chaos  of  militarism  out  of  which  came  the  growth 
of  a  people.  Besides,  there  is  something  more  inter- 
esting than  the  past  history  of  this  nation  and  some- 
thing that  we  need  to  know  more  about,  and  that  is 
the  contemporary  life  of  the  Venezuelans.  And  so 
for  a  brief  space  let  us  turn  our  attention  to  the 
Venezuela  of  today,  which  is  still  old  Spain — the  Spain 
of  Washington  Irving  eighty  years  and  more  ago. 
She  has  as  much  beauty,  her  people  have  the  same 
Andalusian  charm,  and  she  can  show  as  much  romance 
and  intricate  diplomacy,  or  as  many  primitive  inns  as 
existed  beyond  the  Pyrenees  before  guide-books  were 
bound  in  red. 

Venezuela  resembles  Mexico  and  the  Andean  re- 
publics of  South  America,  differing  from  her  Atlantic 
sisters  in  that  she  still  retains  as  a  working-class  a 
large  remnant  of  the  aboriginal  population  which  the 
earliest  Spaniards  discovered  when  they  landed.  The 
Indians  were  not  agricultural,  although  they  had  all 
facilities  for  becoming  so;  and  they  left  no  trace  of 
having  been  stirred  into  barbarism  or  a  crude  civiliza- 


202  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

tion,  as  were  the  Mexicans  and  the  Peruvians.  These 
Caribs,  if  they  were  nothing  else,  were  fighters,  and 
delayed  the  European  attempts  at  benevolent  assimi- 
lation. They  must  have  been  numerous.  They  were 
found  everywhere,  and  even  now  there  are  60,000  un- 
mixed independent  Indians  and  240,000  who  have 
adopted  some  semblance  of  village  life — Imore  than 
remain  in  Argentine  and  probably  nearly  as  many  as 
Brazil  contains.  Upon  this  primitive  stock,  uncivil- 
izable  by  any  means  within  themselves,  the  Spanish 
left  their  stamp.  What  they  did  not  kill  they  enslaved. 
Las  Casas,  the  defender  of  the  Indians,  one  of  the 
founders,  as  we  have  said,  of  Cumana,  was  the  insti- 
gator of  the  importation  of  Africans  into  Venezuela 
and  the  West  Indies;  blacks  and  Indians  became 
mixed,  and  there  was  soon  a  subject  race  working  in 
the  mines,  in  the  fields  and  in  the  towns. 

But  Spanish  is  the  dominant  stock  which  has  pro- 
duced the  native  of  Venezuela;  he  has  little  blood 
from  elsewhere ;  neither  Italians  nor  Portuguese  have 
come  in  sufficient  numbers  to  exert  an  influence.  Ger- 
mans, when  they  entered  Venezuela,  came  singly  and 
were  absorbed  by  marriage,  or  as  feeble  colonists  were 
lost  among  themselves.  The  English,  except  as  ad- 
venturers or  buccaneers,  never  hankered  after  Venez- 
uela as  they  did  for  Uruguay  and  Argentina  and  parts 
of  Brazil,  nor  did  the  French  attempt  any  conquest 
or  settlement  beyond  their  tiny  islands  of  Martinique 
and  Guadeloupe.  The  ingredients  are  altogether 
Spanish,    Indian,    and    African.      This    rather    pure 


VENEZUELA  AND  THE  VENEZUELANS  203 

Castilian  stock  spread  farther  and  farther  westward, 
avoiding  the  coast  (contrary  to  the  Brazilian  habit), 
settHng  deeper  inland  as  far  south  as  Merida  (1558), 
always  seeking  gold,  but  absorbing  a  certain  content 
from  the  beauties  of  the  mountains,  and  deriving  prof- 
its from  agriculture  and  pasturage  when  they  could 
not  discover  precious  metals.  They  differ  from  the 
Mexicans,  who  found  riches  at  hand.  The  Venezue- 
lans had  to  be  modest  in  their  foundations ;  the  lux- 
urious cathedrals  of  the  City  of  Mexico  and  Tula  are 
not  duplicated,  nor  could  they  populate  towns  of  the 
greatness  of  Zacatecas  and  Guanajuato;  El  Dorado 
eluded  them,  so  they  had  to  remain  agriculturists. 
When  coffee  was  introduced  in  1784,  they  were  ready 
for  country  life,  and  since  then  they  have  become  rec- 
onciled, rugged  and  free.  Not  having  been  so  be- 
loved by  Spain  as  the  gold-bearing  colonies  of  Mex- 
ico and  Peru,  they  had  less  intercourse  with  the 
world  in  general,  and  their  Spanish  traits  remain 
quite  untarnished.  "Quien  dice  Espaha  dice  todo" 
(Spain  is  the  whole  thing).  "Venezuela  first  and  last" 
is  the  key  to  their  character. 

Democracy  is  the  breath  of  their  nostrils,  not  so 
much  in  politics  as  in  conduct,  for  your  Venezuelan 
is  your  true  democrat.  The  traveler  needs  only  to 
read  Ford's  Gatherings  from  Spain  and  our  own  John 
Hay's  Castilian  Days  to  catch  the  spirit  of  the  trans- 
planted Iberianism  in  the  New  World.  The  alms- 
seeker  is  not  a  beggar  here;  he  is  merely  the  object 
upon  whom  you  bestow  your  good-will  and  who  gives 


204  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

you  his  blesing,  and  he  loses  none  of  his  dignity  by 
the  exchange;  he  carries  his  cane  with  the  grace  of 
an  hidalgo  and  has  as  much  right  to  the  sunshine  and 
fresh  air  as  the  owner  of  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills. 
Poverty  makes  no  caste  distinction;  if  the  poor  man 
can  not  offer  you  a  banquet  with  red  wine,  he  is  quite 
as  cordially  hospitable  with  his  simple  beans,  his  ba- 
nana and  his  cup  of  coffee ;  he  will  take  a  light  from 
your  cigarette  or  give  you  one  from  his,  with  no 
thought  but  that  you  are  both  on  the  same  highway, 
though  one  may  be  afoot,  the  other  on  horseback. 
Even  in  Caracas  there  is  no  tinge  of  servility,  and  the 
coachman  or  the  flower-seller  instinctively  proffers 
and  expects  an  equality  of  intercourse,  with  no  pat- 
ronage on  the  one  side  or  humbleness  on  the  other. 
Caracas  is  not  yet  modern,  not  at  all  industrially  ad- 
vanced ;  the  old  graces,  the  old  ease,  the  old  charm  of 
manners  are  practiced  today.  This  epitomizes  itself 
into  courtesy  and  kindliness. 

A  distinguished  diplomat,  visiting  Caracas  for  the 
first  time  and  on  an  unpleasant  errand,  once  exclaimed 
in  his  astonishment  at  the  genuine  hospitality  of  his 
reception,  "Are  they  all  so  kind;  do  they  really  mean 
it?"  He  had  been  brought  up  in  the  school  where 
there  was  a  suspected  ax-to-grind  under  all  politeness. 
But  in  Venezuela  there  is  no  undermotive  and  their 
kindliness  has  not  crystalized  into  a  form  in  which 
punctiliousness  is  of  equal  virtue  with  cordiality.  In 
Spain  they  use  words  of  welcome  which  are  merely 
phrases ;  in  Venezuela  these  have  not  lost  their  mean- 


VENEZUELA  AND  THE  VENEZUELANS  205 

ing.  ''La  casa  es  la  suya,  senor''  (This  is  your  house, 
sir)   is  literally  true  for  as  long  as  you  wish. 

The  pride,  the  honor  of  a  Castilian,  goes  with  this 
kindliness.  It  is  the  honor  which  John  Hay  so  ridi- 
cules, which  has  impoverished  Spain,  made  the  no- 
bility lazy  and  out  of  pocket  and  unable  to  care  for 
anything  beyond  the  blueness  of  their  blood. 

Another  Spanish  trait,  even  more  evident  here 
than  elsewhere  in  Latin  America,  is  the  love  of  mili- 
tarism. They  take  great  pride  in  titles,  these  demo- 
cratic Venezuelans;  generals  are  thick  in  Caracas,  or 
would  be  if  they  did  not  have  to  flee  to  exile,  while 
judges  and  doctors  are  plentiful.  This  signifies  that 
it  is  easier  to  hold  office,  to  decree  a  new  constitution 
and  to  organize  a  revolt,  than  it  is  to  work  patiently 
from  year  to  year,  watching  crops,  improving  agri- 
culture and  following  the  markets.  The  Spaniard 
was  born  to  command,  to  ride  a  horse — is  he  not  a 
cahallerof — and  to  build — republics;  yet  he  can  not 
acquire  the  routine  life  by  which  alone  material  prog- 
ress is  accomplished.  When  coffee  sold  much  higher 
than  it  does  now  in  Venezuela,  the  country  was  rich 
in  consequence;  when,  shortly  before  and  after  our 
Civil  War,  cotton  and  sugar  were  exported  from 
Venezuela,  money  was  plentiful  and  ,Caracas  was 
called  Little  Athens.  But  that  was  luck  quite  as  much 
as  industry,  so  when  luck  departed,  industry  died  also. 
They  can  talk  of  work,  but  the  Venezuelans  do  not 
know  how  to  work. '  Their  talk,  too,  is  inherited  along 
with  their  literature,  and  both  lead  them  into  that 


206  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

exuberant  language  which  so  abuses  and,  I  am  sorry 
to  say,  disgusts  the  Anglo-Saxon.  It  is  only  verbiage; 
it  is  chivalry  gone  to  seed.  Their  culture  is  Spanish, 
theoretic,  idealistic.  Nowhere  else,  unless  it  be  in 
Bogota,  can  such  delightful  society  be  found  or  such 
poetic  conversation  be  enjoyed,  as  in  Caracas. 

I  went  one  afternoon  to  a  tertulia  in  the  house  of 
a  modest  family  in  Caracas.  The  ladies,  young  and 
old,  acted  as  hostesses  and  served  the  light  refresh- 
ments as  informally  and  as  daintily  as  would  be  done 
in  England.  Some  of  them  had  been  to  school  in 
England,  France,  or  the  United  States,  and  the  con- 
versation was  indifferently  carried  on  in  Spanish, 
French,  or  English.  After  the  usual  small  talk  about 
the  weather,  music  at  the  opera,  and  the  game  of  base- 
ball, which  at  present  is  the  fashionable  outdoor 
amusement  of  the  young  men  of  Caracas,  we  drifted 
unconsciously  into  a  comparison  of  national  litera- 
tures, and  I  was  impressed  by  the  remarkable  famil- 
iarity shown  by  these  ladies  with  our  poets.  Poe 
seemed  particularly  to  have  touched  the  melancholy 
temperament  of  the  Spanish,  but  other  poets  and  nov- 
elists were  mentioned  with  such  freedom  that  I  had 
to  confess  my  ignorance  about  some  of  them.  I 
went  away  feeling  that  in  culture  and  profound  ap- 
preciation of  many  of  the  deeper  emotions  of  the 
human  soul,  an  American  could  learn  much  from  the 
simpler  aristocracy  of  Venezuela.  The  dress,  the 
manners,  the  elegance  of  diction  and  suavity  of  con- 
duct, would  be  admired  in  any  capital  of  Europe ;  here 


VENEZUELA  AND  THE  VENEZUELANS    207 

in  America  it  seems  artificial,  however  charming.  The 
family  life,  too,  when  it  retains  its  old-fashioned 
savor,  is  intimate  and  quite  patriarchal,  though  I  fear 
that  recently  it  has  become  tainted  by  fin  de  Steele 
cynicism ;  but  in  the  country  on  the  cafe  Uncas  or  large 
haciendas  the  simple  life  can  be  found  in  as  pure  a 
state  as  in  Old  or  New  England. 

These  conditions  will  not  at  first  be  noticed  by  the 
stranger,  especially  if  he  does  not  speak  Spanish  and 
is  unacquainted  with  the  mother  country.  His  obser- 
vation will  be  chiefly  attracted  by  the  neglected  streets, 
the  quiet  life,  the  lack  of  the  hustle  and  noise  by 
which  he  usually  gauges  a  country's  activity.  If  he 
goes  to  Valencia  or  Cumana  or  up  on  the  mountain  in 
Tachira  to  San  Cristobal,  his  first  impression  is  one 
of  decay,  though  here,  too,  he  will  find  the  same  man- 
ners and  the  same  philosophy.  He  can  not  fail,  how- 
ever, to  be  struck  by  the  courtesy  and  kindliness  of 
the  people,  high  and  low.  The  culture  will  pertain  to 
the  aristocracy,  the  other  characteristics  are  general, 
even  to  the  lowest  peon. 

As  he  descends  the  social  scale  the  traveler  notices 
more  and  more  negro  blood,  and  the  student  will  de- 
clare that  within  recent  years  this  miscegenation  has 
increased ;  it  is  difficult  to  draw  today  the  line  between 
mestizo,  that  is,  half-Spanish  and  half-Indian,  and 
negrito,  in  whose  veins  there  is  African  blood.  Yet 
this  impurity  is  evident  only  near  the  seaports,  dimin- 
ishing farther  inland;  it  seems  therefore  to  differen- 
tiate these  people  from  those  in  Spain  who  still  pre- 


208  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

serve  their  race  unalloyed  since  they  mixed  with  the 
Moor.  The  Venezuelan  peasant  is  the  democrat, 
though  he  have  a  touch  of  the  conquered  in  him ;  and 
if  one  word  describes  him  it  will  be  "docile."  He  has 
been  led  since  he  was  conquered,  and  is  still  subject  to 
the  commands  of  the  aristocracy  and  guided  by  the 
ambitions  of  those  superior  to  him;  he  has  never 
known  another  impulse.  He  is  no  fool ;  he  is  no  more 
stolid  than  is  the  Spaniard ;  his  wit  may  not  be  violent, 
but  he  can  take  a  joke  and  give  one  with  true  Celtic 
enjoyment. 

There  is  an  old  but  good  anecdote  of  a  priest,  re- 
cruited from  the  peasant  class,  who  was  driving  over 
one  of  the  mule-paths  so  pathetically  called  a  royal 
road.  He  himself  had  been  a  muleteer  in  his  youth, 
but  his  sacred  office  seemed  to  compel  him  to  protest 
against  the  language  commonly  used  in  profane  life 
to  encourage  the  steps  of  the  lagging  beast.  At  last 
he  said  to  the  driver:  "Not  so  much,  my  son,"  re- 
ferring rather  to  the  words  than  to  the  severity  of  the 
untiring  whip  in  the  hands  of  his  guide.  "Let  me  try 
my  way,"  he  said  at  last ;  and  the  driver  gladly  relin- 
quished his  whip  and  his  function  to  his  superior,  of 
whose  early  expertness  he  had  often  heard.  But  the 
good  father  forgot  his  office  as  he  warmed  to  his  w^ork, 
and  the  old  zeal  of  whip  and  tongue  came  back  to  him. 
He  plied  both  with  a  vigor  born  of  thorough  training, 
but  his  muleteer,  who  imagined  that  he  had  assumed 
sacerdotal  authority  when  he  changed  his  seat,  in  his 
turn  murmured:  "Not  so  much,  Padre  mio,  not  so 


VENEZUELA  AND  THE  VENEZUELANS     209 

much."  The  father  saw  the  joke  and  the  reproof, 
but  he  answered  with  a  sigh,  "Ah,  but  it  was  good 
while  it  lasted!" 

If  the  peon  could  be  removed  from  the  influence  of 
the  priesthood  and  given  that  true  liberty  for  which 
he  has  always  been  so  ready  to  fight,  there  would  be 
much  hope  for  him;  if  he  were  stirred  by  a  tide  of 
migration  which  would  threaten  him  with  extinction 
if  he  did  not  work,  he  would  enjoy  his  country  as  he 
sings  about  it;  for,  contrary  to  superficial  judgment, 
the  Venezuelan  is  not  lazy;  he  simply  does  not  know 
how  to  work.  He  must  be  impelled  by  some  exterior 
force.  The  Jamaica  negro  is  lazy,  the  southern  black 
is  lazy ;  most  residents  of  the  tropics  are  indolent,  but 
some  will  work  of  themselves  if  they  are  only  shown 
how.  The  Venezolano  is  now  as  the  Mexican  was 
fifty  years  ago — inert. 

This  is  applicable  not  only  to  the  lower  peasant 
class,  but  to  the  whole  nation.  There  may  be  certain 
energies  displayed  at  times  and  a  mental  or  even  phys- 
ical activity  latent,  but  there  is  no  mainspring;  the 
whole  nation  is  unproductive,  overcome  by  the  steril- 
ity of  the  artistic  temperament.  Their  civilization  is 
worn  out. 

I  am  making  no  exhaustive  comparison  between 
their  civilization  and  our  own,  or  between  that  of 
Brazil  and  Argentina.  Our  own  has  defects;  we 
might  be  better  off  if  we  lost  the  vices  of  commer- 
cialism and  replaced  them  by  Latin  graces,  yet  ours 
breathes  of  the  twentieth  century,  while  their  civili- 


210  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

zation  is  on  dead  models.  If  no  substitution  is  possi- 
ble, ours  is  still  better  because  we  produce ;  the  habits 
of  production  we  insist  on,  trusting  that  the  faults 
will  be  checked;  they  in  Venezuela  are  sterile;  with 
the  richest  land  in  the  world,  they  import  foodstuffs 
to  feed  their  scanty  wants. 

Over  both  aristocracy  and  peasantry  has  fallen  the 
Moorish-Spanish  mantle  of  fatalism;  since  revolu- 
tion and  lawlessness  have  always  been,  they  assert  that 
therefore  they  must  always  be.  The  non  sequitur  of 
the  argument  does  not  strike  them,  for  out  of  it  grows 
a  certain  content  which  we  can  not  understand.  Am- 
bition is  not  toward  accomplishing  more — they  are 
satisfied  that  their  country  has  produced  a  Bolivar; 
beyond  this,  imagination  can  not  go  except  in  their 
oratory.  This  shows  all  the  bloom  of  Castilian  poetry. 
Their  country  is  great  and  glorious,  their  deeds  im- 
mortal, their  generals  conquerors  and  heroes,  their 
battles  the  clash  of  Titans;  but  most  of  it  is  mere 
oratory,  however  beautiful  and  classic. 

Their  civilization  is  finer  than  ours,  less  .gross,  less 
sordid ;  or,  to  use  a  word  which  brings  out  the  feature 
of  greatest  importance,  less  material,  therefore  unpro- 
ductive. It  is  a  relic  of  the  time  when  an  aristocracy 
was  real  and  deported  itself  as  such,  when  culture  be- 
longed to  the  upper  class  and  labor  to  the  lower,  when 
breeding  and  pedigree  signified  everything,  and  poli- 
tics was  the  sport  of  those  who  held  the  office  for  the 
sake  of  the  money  it  brought  and  the  power  it  gave. 
But  it  is  a  civilization  obsolescent  if  not  dead.     We 


VENEZUELA  AND  THE  VENEZUELANS  211 

see  the  same  in  Spain  today,  where  it  has  withered  for 
fifty  years;  in  Italy,  where  it  is  giving  place  to  a 
sturdier  culture  whose  sign  is  deeds,  not  words;  in 
our  own  South,  where  oratory  and  southern  chivalry 
were  coexistent.  But  in  this  South,  as  well  as  in 
Mexico,  it  is  receding  before  the  activity  of  that  civi- 
lization which  materially  develops  a  country  for  the 
man  who  works,  although  it  may  appear  for  a  time 
to  crush  out  the  more  delicate  instincts  of  a  race  by 
the  struggle  to  give  nourishment  to  both  body  and 
brain. 

Venezuela,  strange  to  say,  with  her  nearness  to 
the  eastern  world  and  her  early  start  in  history,  is 
the  last  to  yield  to  the  forces  of  industrialism.  In 
fact,  she  has  not  yet  yielded  and  may  not  yield  for 
years  to  come.  The  ethnographic  rule  of  Humboldt 
that  ''the  accidents  of  climate  and  configuration  are 
felt  in  all  their  force  only  among  a  race  of  men  .  .  . 
who  receive  some  exterior  impulse,"  can,  at  the  end 
as  well  as  at  the  beginning  of  her  life,  be  applied  to 
Venezuela.  Her  people  are  of  healthy  stock ;  they  are 
not  irredeemably  tuberculous,  and,  preserving  the  tem- 
perate habits  of  the  Latins,  have  escaped  the  dangers 
from  alcohol  which  threatens  to  destroy  the  West 
Andean  natives.  If  the  Venezuelans  have  one  vice 
it  is  gambling;  but  that,  while  discouraging  thrift, 
never  impoverishes  a  race;  they  love  the  excitement 
of  the  hazard,  whether  at  the  card-table  of  an  aris- 
tocratic club,  the  official  lotteries  supported  by  church 
and  state,  or  the  crap  games  of  the  village  urchins; 


212  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

and  they  still  love  the  bull-fight.  In  Caracas  the  qua- 
drilla  is  as  ceremonious  as  at  Madrid ;  but  Mexico  has 
not  abandoned  bull-fights,  and  we  admit  that  her  vir- 
tues have  carried  her  safely  beyond  medievalism. 

Thus  the  unavoidable  comparison  comes  up  again. 
Mexico,  too,  was  Old  Spain  before  Diaz,  foreign  capi- 
tal and  American  enterprise  changed  her  from  a  land 
of  gilded  romance  into  an  enterprising,  producing  na- 
tion, recognizing  the  need  of  material  industrialism. 
So  it  must  be  with  Venezuela.  Her  agricultural 
riches  can  never  be  exhausted,  but  they  must  be  drawn 
out  by  foreign  brains,  northern  money  and  perhaps 
by  Teutonic  energy.** 


CHAPTER  XV 

SOME  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  SOUTH  AMERICAN 

UNTIL  very  recently,  the  average  newspaper  arti- 
cle and  the  talk  of  the  average  person,  so  far  as 
it  went,  took  it  for  granted  that  South  America  was  a 
region  devoted  to  revolutions  and  fevers,  where  indi- 
viduals called  South  Americans  spent  their  time  in  a 
cheerful  state  of  anarchy.  There  are  novels  and  plays 
that  still  maintain  this  pleasing  fiction,  although,  thanks 
to  a  recent  enlightened  secretary  of  state  and  an  ener- 
getic director  of  the  Bureau  of  American  Republics, 
we  know  much  more  about  South  America  than  we  did. 
In  fact,  we  are  beginning  to  distinguish  to  a  certain 
extent  between  the  stable  republics  of  Argentina  and 
Chile  and  the  troublesome  ones  like  Venezuela,  but 
we  still  speak  of  the  people  as  "South  Americans," 
and  it  is  fair  to  do  so. 

A  race  is  rising  in  South  America  that  is  different 
from  anything  that  the  world  has  yet  seen.  It  is  a 
hybrid  product  composed  for  the  most  part  of  the 
blood  of  Spaniards  and  South  American  aborigines, 
such  as  Quichuas,  Araucanians,  and  Abipones.  There 
is  also  an  infiltration  of  various  European  stocks.  It 
is  true  that  there  are  differences  between  the  peoples 
of  the  several  South  American  republics,  just  as  there 
are  differences  between  the  aboriginal  Indian  tribes. 

213 


214  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

At  the  same  time,  there  is  so  much  of  the  blood  that 
came  from  the  Hispanic  peninsula  and  this  has  been 
for  so  many  generations  the  dominant  factor,  that  it  is 
possible  to  consider  the  people  of  South  America  more 
or  less  as  a  whole. 

It  must  also  be  admitted  at  the  beginning  that  there 
are  many  South  Americans  who  can  not  be  included  in 
any  general  criticism.  There  are  many  families  of 
pure  Castilian  ancestry  who  rightfully  resent  any  im- 
plication that  they  are  hybrids  because  they  are  South 
Americans,  although  the  latter  constitute  a  majority 
of  the  population  in  the  several  republics,  notably 
Bolivia  and  Peru.  We  ought  easily  to  be  able  to 
appreciate  the  fact  that  such  a  broad  term  as  "South 
American"  must  include  many  diametrically  opposite 
types,  for  foreigners  are  finding  it  increasingly  diffi- 
cult, nay,  almost  impossible,  to  define  and  fix  the  limit 
of  our  own  characteristics  as  "Americans."  A  hun- 
dred years  ago  it  was  simple  enough.  People  of  Eng- 
lish descent  dominated  things  everywhere.  Today  we 
are  a  mixture  of  fifty  races,  and  it  is  hard  to  say  who 
has  the  right  to  be  considered  the  typical  Bostonian 
or  New  Yorker,  he  of  English  or  Dutch  extraction,  or 
he  of  Jewish  or  Irish  ancestry. 

Things  are  not  quite  so  bad  in  South  America,  for 
the  most  of  the  republics  have  seen  but  comparatively 
little  immigration  and  the  politics  of  South  America 
are  today  directed  by  men  of  Spanish  and  Indian 
descent.  Even  in  Argentina,  where  the  census  shows 
a  more  cosmopolitan  population  than  in  any  other  re- 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  CHARACTERISTICS      215 

public,  the  game  of  politics  is  controlled  almost  exclu- 
sively by  Argentinos  whose  ancestors  were  Spaniards 
and  Indians.  In  another  generation  this  may  be 
changed,  for  thanks  to  an  increasing  and  extensive  im- 
migration, the  Argentine  type  is  becoming  more  and 
more  Europeanized.  In  Bolivia  and  Peru,  on  the  other 
hand,  owing  to  scarcity  of  available  and  accessible 
agricultural  lands  and  the  consequent  lack  of  immigra- 
tion, the  typical  politician  is  nearer  a  simple  cross  be- 
tween Spaniard  and  Indian.  In  Chile  there  is  more 
Anglo-Saxon  and  Teutonic  blood,  while  in  Venezuela 
and  Colombia  there  is  very  much  less.  In  Brazil  there 
IS  more  African.  In  fact,  one  is  almost  inclined  to 
leave  the  Brazilians  out  of  the  case,  for  their  ancestors 
have  been  of  a  very  different  stock  from  that  in  the 
Spanish-speaking  republics;  Portuguese  instead  of 
Spanish,  Amazonian  Indian  instead  of  mountain  In- 
dian, and  far  more  African  blood  than  in  any  other 
republic.  Nevertheless,  they,  too,  by  the  very  fact  of 
their  being  a  mixture  of  Caucasian,  American  Indian, 
and  African,  living  under  similar  geographical  condi- 
tions, have  many  of  the  same  traits  that  are  found  else- 
where on  the  continent. 

Making  due  allowance  for  the  exceptions,  what  are 
the  characteristics  of  the  South  Americans  of  today? 

As  one  travels  through  the  various  South  American 
republics,  becomes  acquainted  with  their  political  and 
social  conditions,  reads  their  literature  and  talks  with 
other  American  travelers,  there  are  a  number  of 
adverse  criticisms  that  frequently  arise.     I  shall  at- 


216  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

tempt  to  enumerate  some  of  them,  to  account  for  a  few, 
and  to  compare  others  with  criticisms  that  were  made 
of  the  people  of  the  United  States  fifty  years  ago. 
The  period  of  time  is  not  accidental.  The  South 
American  republics  secured  their  independence  nearly 
fifty  years  later  than  we  did.  Moreover,  they  have 
been  hampered  in  their  advancement  by  natural  diffi- 
culties and  racial  antipathies  much  more  than  we  have. 
Although  the  conditions  of  life  in  the  United  States  as 
depicted  by  foreign  critics  seventy-five  years  after  the 
battle  of  Yorktown,  were  decidedly  worse  than  the  con- 
ditions of  life  in  South  America  seventy-five  years 
after  the  battle  of  Ayacucho,  the  resemblances  between 
the  faults  that  were  found  with  us  fifty  years  ago  and 
those  that  are  noticeable  among  the  South  Americans 
of  today  are  too  striking  to  be  merely  coincidences. 
It  is  surely  not  for  us  to  say  that  there  is  anything 
inherently  wrong  with  our  southern  neighbors  if  their 
shortcomings  are  such  as  we  ourselves  had  not  long 
ago,  and  possibly  have  today. 

The  first  criticism  that  one  hears  and  the  first  one 
is  likely  to  make  after  getting  beyond  the  pale  of  offi- 
cial good  breeding  in  South  America,  is  that  the  man- 
ners of  the  ordinary  South  American  are  very  bad. 
Let  the  traveler  who  is  inclined  to  take  such  a  state 
of  affairs  too  seriously,  read  what  Dickens  wrote 
about  us  and  our  ways  in  1885  in  American  Azotes  and 
Martin  Chuzzlewit.  It  was  a  faithful  picture  of  a  cer- 
tain phase  of  American  life,  and,  furthermore,  it  paints 
a  condition  of  affairs  worse  than  anything  seen  in 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  CHARACTERISTICS      217 

South  America.  It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that 
these  criticisms  had  to  do  only  with  certain  phases  of 
American  life,  and  when  Mr.  Dickens,  the  traveler 
and  incidental  observer,  applied  the  description  to  the 
whole  of  American  life,  there  was  naturally  an  indig- 
nant protest  from  the  better  bred  class,  just  as  there 
is  today  from  the  cultured,  refined  class  of  pure  Cas- 
tilians  in  South  America,  when  adverse  criticisms  are 
made  to  apply  to  South  Americans  in  general. 

It  is  hard  indeed  to  overlook  the  table  manners  of 
the  average  South  American.  But  how  many  years  is 
it  since  North  Americans  were  all  reading  and  conning 
Don't!  A  Guide  to  Good  Manners f  To  one  inclined 
to  criticize  the  speed  with  which  a  company  of  South 
Americans  will  dispose  of  their  food,  let  me  recom- 
mend a  reference  to  Dickens'  description  of  an  Ameri- 
can boarding-house  table,  where  "few  words  were 
spoken;  and  everybody  seemed  to  eat  his  utmost  in 
self-defense,  as  if  a  famine  were  expected  to  set  in 
before  breakfast-time  tomorrow  morning." 

The  conversation  of  a  group  of  young  South  Amer- 
icans is  not  such  as  appeals  to  our  taste.  There  is 
usually  too  much  running  comment  on  the  personal 
qualities  and  attractions  of  their  women  acquaintances. 
To  them  it  seems  doubtless  most  gallant.  At  all  events, 
it  is  not  sordid,  as  was  that  conversation  which  Dickens 
describes  as  "summed  up  in  one  word — dollars." 

Another  one  of  Dickens*  criticisms  of  North  Amer- 
icans was  the  frequency  of  the  expression  Yes,  sir, 
and  he  made  a  great  deal  of  fun  of  us  for  our  use  of 


218  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

it.  Singularly  enough,  the  Spanish  "Yes,  sir" — Si 
senor — is  so  extremely  common  throughout  South 
America  as  to  attract  one's  attention  continually. 

Another  thing  that  Dickens  notices  was  our  tend- 
ency to  postpone  and  put  off  from  day  to  day  things 
that  did  not  have  to  be  done.  Yet  there  is  no  more 
common  criticism  of  Spanish-Americans  than  that 
known  as  the  Manana  habit.  You  will  hear  almost 
any  one  who  pretends  to  know  anything  at  all  about 
Spanish-America  say  that  the  great  difficulty  is  the 
ease  with  which  the  Spanish-American  says  ''Manana." 
Personally,  I  do  not  agree  with  this  criticism,  for  I 
have  heard  the  expression  very  seldom  in  South 
America.  It  is  true  that  it  is  hard  to  get  things  done 
as  quickly  as  one  would  wish,  but  I  believe  the  criti- 
cism has  been  much  overworked.  Dickens  was  un- 
doubtedly honest  in  reporting  that  the  habit  of  post- 
poning one's  work  was  characteristic  of  the  "middle 
west"  as  he  saw  it,  but  such  remarks  would  be  greatly 
resented  today  and  would  be  untrue.  So  we  should 
use  care  in  accepting  criticisms  made  on  South  Ameri- 
cans by  travelers  of  a  few  years  ago  as  being  true 
today. 

In  many  South  American  cities  one  is  annoyed  by 
the  continual  handshaking.  No  matter  how  many 
times  a  day  you  meet  a  man,  he  expects  you  to  sol- 
emnly shake  hands  with  him  just  as  did  those  western 
Americans  who  so  annoyed  "Martin  Chuzzlewit." 

We  also  dislike  intensely  the  South  American  habit 
of  staring  at  strangers  and  of  making  audible  com- 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  CHARACTERISTICS       219 

ments  on  ladies  who  happen  to  be  passing.  Unfor- 
tunately, this  is  a  Latin  habit  which  will  be  hard  to 
change.  The  South  American  has  a  racial  right  to 
look  at  such  customs  differently.  But  if  some  of  his 
personal  habits  are  unpleasant  and  even  disgusting 
from  our  point  of  view,  there  is  no  question  that  we 
irritate  him  just  as  much  as  he  does  us.  Our  curt 
forms  of  address ;  our  impatient  disregard  of  the  ame- 
nities of  social  intercourse;  our  unwillingness  to  pass 
the  time  of  day  at  considerable  length,  and  inquire, 
each  time  we  see  a  friend,  after  his  health  and  that  of 
his  family;  our  habit  of  elevating  our  feet  and  often 
sitting  in  a  slouchy  attitude  when  conversing  with 
strangers  are  to  him  extremely  distasteful  and  annoy- 
ing. Our  unwillingness  to  take  the  trouble  to  speak 
his  language  grammatically  and  our  general  point  of 
view  in  regard  to  the  ''innate  superiority"  of  our  race, 
our  language  and  our  manufactures  are  all  evidences, 
to  his  mind,  of  our  barbarity.  We  care  far  too  little 
for  appearances.  This  seems  to  him  boorish.  We 
criticize  him  because  he  does  not  bathe  as  frequently 
as  we  do.  He  criticizes  us  because  we  do  not  show 
him  proper  respect  by  removing  our  hats  when  we 
meet  him  on  the  street. 

Furthermore,  he  regards  us  as  lacking  in  business 
integrity.  We  are  too  shrewd.  Our  standard  of  honor 
seems  low  to  him.  In  fact,  a  practical  obstacle  with 
which  one  accustomed  to  American  business  methods 
has  to  contend  in  South  America,  is  the  extreme  diffi- 
culty of  securing  accurate  information  as  to  a  man's 


220  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

credit.  Inquiries  into  the  financial  standing  of  an  indi- 
vidual, which  are  regarded  as  a  matter  of  course  with 
us,  are  resented  by  the  sensitive  Latin  temperament  as 
a  personal  reflection  on  his  honesty.  It  seems  to  be 
true  that  the  South  American  regards  the  payment  of 
his  debts  as  a  matter  more  closely  touching  honor  than 
we  do.  He  is  accustomed  to  receiving  long  credits ;  he 
always  really  intends  to  pay  sometime  and  he  generally 
manages  to  raise  installments  without  much  difficulty. 
Yet  when  pressed  hard  in  the  courts,  he  is  likely  to 
turn  and  resent  as  an  intentional  insult  the  judgment 
which  has  been  secured  against  him.  I  have  known 
personally  of  a  case  where  a  debtor  informed  his  cred- 
itor that  it  would  be  necessary  for  him  to  come  well 
armed  if  he  accompanied  the  sheriff  in  an  effort  to 
satisfy  the  judgment  of  the  court,  for  the  first  man, 
and  as  many  more  as  possible,  that  crossed  the  door 
of  his  shop  on  such  an  errand  would  be  shot.  This 
we  criticize  as  defiance  of  the  law.  To  the  South 
American,  the  law  has  committed  an  unpardonable 
fault  in  venturing  to  convict  him  of  neglecting  his 
honorable  debts. 

It  is  unfortunate  tHat  the  SoutH  Americans  them- 
selves are  generally  quite  unaware  of  their  failings — a 
species  of  blindness  that  has  frequently  been  laid  at 
our  own  doors.  It  is  due  to  a  similar  cause.  South 
American  writers  who  have  traveled  abroad  and  seen 
enough  to  enable  them  to  point  out  the  defects  of  their 
countrymen,  rarely  venture  to  do  so.  The  South 
American  loves  praise,  but  can  not  endure  criticism. 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  CHARACTERISTICS      221 

It  makes  him  fairly  froth  at  the  mouth,  as  it  did  the 
Americans  in  the  days  of  Charles  Dickens'  first  visit. 
So  the  pleasant-faced  gentleman  from  Massachusetts, 
Mr.  Bevan,  told  young  Martin  Chuzzlewit : 

If  you  have  any  knowledge  of  our  literature,  and 
can  give  me  the  name  of  any  man,  American  born  and 
bred,  who  has  atomized  our  follies  as  a  people,  and 
not  as  this  or  that  party ;  and  has  escaped  the  foulest 
and  most  brutal  slander,  the  most  inveterate  hatred 
and  intolerant  pursuit ;  it  will  be  a  strange  name  in  my 
ears,  believe  me.  In  some  cases  I  could  name  to  you, 
where  a  native  writer  has  ventured  on  the  most  harm- 
less and  good-humored  illustrations  of  our  vices  or 
defects,  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  announce,  that 
in  a  second  edition  the  passage  has  been  expunged,  or 
altered,  or  explained  away,  or  patched  into  praise. 

There  is  a  story  in  Santiago  de  Chile  of  a  young 
American  scholar  who  spent  some  time  there  studying 
localisms.  When  he  returned  to  New  York  he  ven- 
tured to  publish  honest  but  rather  severe  criticisms 
of  society,  as  he  saw  it,  in  that  most  aristocratic  of 
South  American  republics.  As  a  result,  the  university 
from  which  he  came  received  a  bad  name  in  Chile, 
and  his  visit  is  held  in  such  unpleasant  memory  that 
his  welcome,  were  he  to  return  there,  would  be  far 
from  friendly.  This  seems  narrow-minded  and  per- 
verse, but  is  exactly  the  way  we  felt  not  long  ago 
toward  foreigners  who  spent  a  few  months  in  the 
States  and  wrote,  for  the  benefit  of  the  European  pub- 
lic, sincere  but  caustic  criticisms.  American  sensi- 
tiveness became  a  byword  in  Europe.  Possibly  it  is 
growing  less  with  us.    However  that  may  be,  South 


222  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

American  sensitiveness  is  no  keener  today  than  ours 
was  fifty  years  since. 

It  is  particularly  important  that  we  should  realize 
that  the  political  conditions  of  the  larger  republics 
are  very  much  more  stable  than  our  newspaper  and 
novel-reading  public  are  aware  of.  Lynchings  are  un- 
heard of.  Serious  riots,  such  as  some  of  our  largest 
cities  have  seen  within  the  past  generation,  are  no  more 
common  with  them  than  with  us.  It  is  true  that  the 
Latin  temperament  finds  it  much  more  difficult  to  bow 
to  the  majesty  of  the  law  and  to  yield  gracefully  to 
governmental  decrees  than  the  more  phlegmatic  Teu- 
ton or  Anglo-Saxon.  But  the  revolutions  and  riots 
that  Paris  has  witnessed  during  the  past  century  have 
not  kept  us  from  a  serious  effort  to  increase  our  busi- 
ness with  France.  The  occasional  political  riot  that 
takes  place,  of  no  more  significance  than  the  riots 
caused  by  strikers  with  which  we  are  all  familiar  at 
home,  is  no  reason  why  we  should  be  afraid  to  en- 
deavor to  capture  the  South  American  market. 

Climatic  conditions  and  difficulties  of  rapid  trans- 
portation have  had  much  to  do  with  the  backwardness 
of  the  South  American  republics.  With  the  progress 
of  science,  the  great  increase  in  transportation  facili- 
ties and  the  war  that  is  being  successfully  waged 
against  tropical  diseases,  a  change  is  coming  about 
which  we  must  be  ready  to  meet. 

There  is  not  the  slightest  question  that  there  is  a 
great  opportunity  awaiting  the  American  manufacturer 
and  exporter  when  he  is  willing  to  grasp  it  with  intel- 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  CHARACTERISTICS      223 

ligent  persistence  and  determination.  South  America 
is  ready  to  take  American  goods  in  very  large  quanti- 
ties as  soon  as  we  are  ready  to  take  time  to  give 
attention  to  her  needs.  Germany  teaches  her  young 
business  men  Spanish  and  Portuguese  and  sends  them 
out  to  learn  conditions  in  the  field.  American  univer- 
sities long  ago  learned  the  advantage  of  adopting  Ger- 
many's thoroughgoing  methods  of  scientific  research. 
American  business  men  have  hitherto  failed  to  realize 
the  importance  of  adopting  Germany's  thoroughgoing 
methods  of  developing  foreign  commerce. 

There  is  one  characteristic  of  the  South  American 
that  is  to  be  deplored,  and  that  is  their  disregard  of 
accuracy  in  giving  information.  This  has  been  at- 
tained by  their  seven  centuries  of  association  with  the 
Arabs  and  Moors.  The  student  of  the  East  realizes 
that  Orientals,  including  Turks  and  celestials,  have  no 
sense  of  the  importance  of  agreeing  with  fact.  They 
have,  furthermore,  a  great  abhorrence  of  a  vacuum. 
If  they  do  not  know  the  reply  to  a  question,  they  an- 
swer at  random,  preferring  anything  to  the  admission 
of  ignorance.  If  they  do  know,  and  have  no  interest 
in  substituting  something  else  for  what  they  know, 
they  give  the  facts.  When  they  have  no  facts  to  give 
they  give  something  else.  They  not  only  deceive  the 
questioner,  they  actually  deceive  themselves.  The  same 
thing  is  true  to  a  certain  degree  in  South  Americans. 
Sometimes  I  have  thought  they  are  too  polite  to  say 
"I  don't  know." 

In  South  America,  as  in  the  East,  it  is  of  primary 


224  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

importance  to  reach  the  men  who  know  and  to  pay  no 
attention  to  any  one  else.  No  one  really  knows,  who  is 
not  actually  on  the  spot,  in  contact  with  facts.  The 
prudent  observer  must  avoid  all  evidence  that  is  not 
first  hand  and  derived  from  a  trustworthy  source. 

I  do  not  bring  this  as  a  charge  against  the  South 
Americans.  I  state  it  as  a  condition  which  I  have 
found  to  be  nearly  universally  true.  So  far  as  the 
South  Americans  are  concerned  it  is  an  inherited  trait 
and  one  which  they  are  endeavoring  to  overcome. 
They  are  not  to  be  blamed  for  having  it  any  more  than 
we  are  to  be  blamed  for  having  inherited  traits  from 
our  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors  which  are  unpleasant  to 
our  Latin  neighbors  and  for  which  they  have  to  make 
allowance  in  dealing  with  us. 

In  offering  these  adverse  criticisms  of  the  South 
American  as  he  appears  to  me  today,  I  must  beg  not 
to  be  misunderstood.  There  are  naturally  many  ex- 
ceptions to  the  rule.  I  know  personally  many  indi- 
viduals who  do  not  have  any  of  the  characteristics  here 
attributed  to  South  Americans  in  general.  I  have 
in  mind  one  South  American,  a  resident  of  a  much- 
despised  republic,  whose  ancestors  fought  in  one  of 
the  great  battles  of  the  Wars  of  Independence,  who 
has  as  much  push  and  energy  as  a  veritable  New  York 
captain  of  industry.  He  has  promoted  a  number  of 
successful  industrial  enterprises.  He  keeps  up  with 
the  times ;  he  meddles  not  in  politics ;  he  enjoys  such 
sports  as  hunting  with  hounds  and  riding  across 
country.     The  difference  between  him  and  the  New 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  CHARACTERISTICS      225 

Yorker  is  that  he  speaks  three  or  four  languages  where 
the  New  Yorker  speaks  only  one  or  two,  and  he  has 
sense  enough  to  take  many  holidays  in  the  year  where 
the  New  Yorker  takes  but  few.  I  know  another,  a  cul- 
tured young  Chilean  lawyer  who  gives  dinner  parties 
where  the  food  is  as  good,  the  manners  as  refined, 
the  conversation  as  brilliant  and  the  intellectual  enjoy- 
ment as  keen  as  any  given  anywhere.  He,  too,  speaks 
four  languages  fluently  and  could  put  to  shame  the 
average  New  York  lawyer  of  his  own  age  in  the  variety 
of  topics  upon  which  he  is  able  to  converse,  not  only 
at  his  ease,  but  brilliantly  and  with  flashes  of  wit.  I 
know  another,  a  distinguished  historian,  who  has  been 
described  by  a  well-known  American  librarian,  himself 
the  member  of  half  a  dozen  learned  societies,  as  the 
"most  scholarly  and  most  productive"  biographer  in 
either  North  or  South  America. 

The  South  Americans  of  today  have  so  many  of 
the  faults  of  the  Americans  of  yesterday  that  all  our 
dealings  with  them  should  be  marked  by  appreciative 
understanding  and  large-minded  charity.  Any  feeling 
of  superiority,  like  that  "certain  condescension"  which 
we  have  noted  (and  hated)  in  foreigners,  will  only 
make  our  task  the  harder,  and  international  good-will 
more  difficult  to  achieve.^ 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  TWO  'AMERICAS  AND  THE   RELATION  OF   SOUTH 
AMERICA  TO  EUROPE 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  bade  his  fellow  citi- 
zens to  think  continentally ;  and  Herodotus,  in 
the  short  introduction  prefixed  to  his  history  explains 
its  theme  as  being  an  account  of  the  relations  of  two 
great  continents,  that  is,  Europe  and  Asia,  and  of  the 
reasons  which  produced  such  recurring  strife  between 
them.  Let  us  attempt  to  think  a  little  of  the  southern 
part  of  the  western  world  as  a  whole,  in  its  relations 
as  a  continent  to  the  other  continents,  and  especially 
to  that  other  continent  with  which  it  is  connected  by 
a  narrow  neck  of  land,  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  and 
which  has  also  drawn  its  name  from  the  same  navi- 
gator. The  series  of  incidents  by  which  the  name 
of  a  Florentine  was  given,  first,  to  a  continent  he 
probably  did  not  discover,  and  then  to  another  which 
he  never  saw,  is  a  curious  one. 

Everybody  knows  Christopher  Columbus  sailed 
out  into  the  west  in  search  of  new  lands,  expecting 
them  to  be  a  part  of  Asia,  and  that  to  the  day  of  his 
death,  after  four  voyages,  he  believed  that  he  had 
found  India.  In  the  last  of  those  voyages,  when  he 
was  wearily  beating  up  along  the  coast  of  Darien 
against   the  currents,   he   fancied  himself   near   the 

226 


THE  TWO  AMERICAS  227 

Straits  of  Malacca.  It  is  natural,  therefore,  that  nei- 
ther he  nor  his  first  successors  in  exploration  should 
have  given  a  name  to  the  new  western  land  south  of 
the  Caribbean  Sea,  even  when  they  had  explored 
enough  of  it  to  know  it  was  a  continent.  They  named 
particular  regions,  but  a  general  name  was  not  needed 
because  it  was  expected  that  the  parts  seen  would 
turn  out  to  be  parts  of  Asia.  Then  in  1497  other 
voyagers  who  sailed  forth  to  explore  said  that  they 
found  a  new  land,  far  off  in  the  ocean  to  the  south- 
west of  the  Canary  Islands.  Next  year  Columbus 
discovered  on  the  south  side  the  Caribbean  Sea  the 
"Terra  Firma,"  which  we  call  Venezuela.  Americus 
Vespuccius  of  Florence,  one  of  the  ship's  company 
of  the  1497  voyage,  wrote  letters,  giving  an  account 
of  this  (and  of  a  later  voyage,  also)  to  the  new  land 
far  to  the  southwest  in  which  he  described  it  as  "a 
New  World,  a  New  Fourth  Part  of  the  Globe," 
Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  being  the  other  three.  The 
letters  made  a  great  sensation;  and  one  of  them  was 
made  the  basis  of  a  book  called  Cosmo graphice  Intro- 
ductio,  published  in  1507,  at  St.  Die  in  France,  by  a 
certain  Waldseemiiller  (Hylacomylus),  a  professor 
there,  who  suggested  that  as  Americus  was  the  dis- 
coverer of  this  fourth  part  of  the  world,  it  should 
be  called  after  him.  The  book  was  read  far  and  wide ; 
the  name  took.  It  was  not  intended  to  be  applied  to 
the  lands  west  and  south  of  the  Caribbean  Sea,  which 
between  1497  and  1507  had  been  discovered  by  Colum- 
bus and  others;  still  less  to  the  lands  discovered  by 


228  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

John  Cabot  in  the  far  north,  but  to  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent piece  of  land  much  to  the  south  and  east  of 
what  Columbus  had  discovered.  But  when  all  the 
lands  bordering  on  that  part  of  the  Atlantic  had  been 
sufficiently  explored  and  the  records  of  the  voyages 
compared,  it  appeared  that  the  lands  lying  in  the  part 
of  the  ocean  to  which  the  descriptions  of  Americus 
referred,  were,  in  fact,  continuous  with  the  coasts  of 
the  Caribbean  and  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Thereupon  all  the 
land  from  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  (discovered  in  15) 
northward  to  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  came  to  be  in- 
cluded under  the  name  America,  just  because  there  was 
no  other  general  name  for  what  had  been,  at  least  till 
1513,  when  the  Pacific  was  discovered  by  crossing  the 
Isthmus  at  Darien,  still  believed  to  be  part  of  Asia. 
When-  the  Pacific  had  been  reached,  and  still  more 
when  the  ever-famous  voyage  of  Magellan  had  shown 
that  Asia  lay  thousands  of  miles  further  away  beyond 
the  Pacific,  a  general  name  was  badly  wanted.  Much 
later,  and  again,  just  because  there  was  no  other 
competing  name,  the  word  America  was  extended  to 
include  everything  north  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  up 
to  the  Arctic  regions,  and  when  the  need  was  felt  for 
distinguishing  the  two  parts,*  the  words  North  and 
South  were  added.  Although  applied  earlier  to  the 
southern  than  to  the  northern  continent,  the  name 
when  used  alone,  denotes,  to  most  Europeans,  the 
latter. 

How  much  simpler  and  better  it  would  have  been 
if  each  continent  had  received  a  name  of  its  own. 


THE  TWO  AMERICAS  229 

South  America  might  have  been  called  after  Colum- 
bus, as  the  first  man  who  saw  its  terra  iirma;  and 
North  America  might  have  received  the  name  of 
Cabotia  or  Pinzonia  or  Ponceana,  whichever  navigator 
may  be  best  entitled  to  be  deemed  its  first  and  true  dis- 
coverer. How  much  trouble  would  have  been  saved 
and  how  many  mistakes  avoided!  Italian  peasants 
would  not  have  fancied  that  a  cousin  who  had  gone 
to  Buenos  Aires  was  the  near  neighbor  of  another 
who  had  gone  to  New  York.  Similarities  would  not 
have  been  imagined  where  differences  exist.  The 
South  Americans  would  not  have  resented  the  assump- 
tion by  the  people  of  the  United  States  of  the  name 
to  which  they  claim  an  equal  right,  and  the  people  of 
the  United  States  would  not  have  formed  the  habit 
of  believing  that  the  Spaniards  of  the  southern  con- 
tinent are  their  affectionate  relatives,  because  they 
share  in  the  same  family  name. 

These,  however,  are  vain  regrets.  The  names  have 
long  been  fixed,  though  for  a  great  while  the  Span- 
iards declined  to  talk  of  North  America.  The  thing 
is  one  instance  among  many  to  show  how  much  may 
flow  from  a  name  which  is  itself  the  result  of  a  mere 
accident. 

Now  let  us  turn  from  names  to  things,  and  con- 
sider in  what  respect  the  two  Americas,  and  their  peo- 
ples, resemble  and  differ  from  one  another,  and  how 
far  they  constitute,  politically  or  otherwise,  one  whole 
world  apart,  and  what  are  the  relations  of  the  south- 
ern,  or   Spanish   and   Portuguese,   continent   to  the 


230  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

other,  now  mainly  Teutonic,  continent,  and  to  the 
countries  of  Europe.  Some  points  in  the  history  of 
each  continent  may  come  out  more  clearly,  and  be- 
come more  significant  when  the  two  are  compared. 
The  history  of  each  illustrates  that  of  the  other. 

The  physical  structure  of  the  two  continents  shows 
certain  similarities.  Each  is  traversed  from  north  to 
south  by  a  great  mountain  chain,  sometimes  breaking 
into  parallel  ridges  and  sometimes  widening  out  into 
high  tablelands.  In  each  this  chain  is  much  nearer 
to  the  western  than  to  the  eastern  coast,  and  in  each 
there  are  volcanic  outbursts  at  various  points  along 
the  lines  of  elevation,  these  being  more  continuous 
and  on  a  vaster  scale  in  the  southern  continent.  In 
each  there  is,  moreover,  an  independent  mountain  mass 
on  the  eastern  side,  the  Appalachian  system  in  North 
America,  the  Brazilian  highlands  in  South  America. 
Each  has,  nearer  to  its  western  than  to  its  eastern 
coast,  a  desert,  and  in  that  desert  an  inland  river  basin 
with  lakes.  Great  Salt  Lake  in  Utah  corresponding 
roughly  to  Lakes  Titicaca  and  Poopo  in  Bolivia.  Each 
has  two  gigantic  rivers,  though  the  Mississippi  and  St. 
Lawrence  are  not  equal  in  volume  to  the  Amazon  and 
the  Parana.  The  shores  of  both  are  washed  by  mighty 
ocean  currents,  but  while  the  Gulf  Stream  warms  the 
east  coast  of  the  northern,  the  Antarctic  current  chills 
the  west  coast  of  the  southern  continent.  Their  cli- 
mates are  so  far  similar  that  in  both  the  east  side  of 
the  continent  receives  more  rain  than  the  west.  South 
America,  however,  having  its  greatest  breadth  in  the 


THE  TWO  AMERICAS  231 

tropics,  lies  more  largely  within  the  torrid  zone. 

It  is,  however,  with  the  settlement  and  subsequent 
history  of  the  two  continents  that  the  real  interest  of 
this  comparison  begins.  There  are  three  remarkable 
points  of  similarity,  but  the  points  of  difference  are 
more  numerous  and  instructive,  since,  in  noting  them, 
we  see  how  potent  each  difference  has  been  in  direct- 
ing the  course  of  events  and  forming  the  character  of 
the  communities  that  have  grown  up. 

The  points  of  similarity  are  these.  Both  continents 
were  inhabited  by  races  entirely  unlike  those  of  Eu- 
rope, who  over  the  greater  part  of  this  area  were  in  the 
savage  state,  but  had  in  a  few  regions  favored  by  na- 
ture made  some  progress  towards  civilization.  Both 
were  conquered  by  Europeans,  and  easily  conquered, 
owing  to  the  superiority  of  the  invaders  in  arms  and 
discipline.  The  peoples  of  both  (with  one  important 
exception  in  the  northern  and  three  unimportant  ex- 
ceptions in  the  southern  continent)  ultimately  revolted 
against  the  kingdoms  whence  the  European  part  of 
their  population  had  come  and  have  ever  since  man- 
aged their  own  affairs  as  republics,  seven  republics  in 
North,  eleven  in  South  America. 

Having  noted  these  general  resemblances  in  the 
fortunes  of  the  two,  let  us  inquire  what  were  the  dif- 
ferences, natural  and  political,  which  made  the  lines 
of  their  subsequent  development  diverge. 

At  this  point,  however,  it  is  proper  to  leave  off 
talking  of  North  and  South  America,  for  the  southern 
part  of  the  former  continent  belongs  historically  and 


232  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

to  some  extent  physically  also,  to  the  latter  continent. 
As  Alexander  Dumas  said  in  his  book  on  Spain,  *'Af- 
rica  begins  at  the  Pyrenees," — it  is  a  saying  which  the 
Spaniards  have  never  forgiven, —  so  we  may  say, 
**  South  America  begins  at  the  Rio  Grande  del  Norte." 
Mexico  and  the  states  of  Central  America  down  to  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama  were  parts  of  the  Spanish  colonial 
empire,  conquered,  settled,  and  administered  in  much 
the  same  way  as  the  still  larger  part  of  that  empire 
which  lay  farther  south.  We  must,  therefore,  group 
the  regions  that  once  belonged  to  that  empire  under 
the  general  name  of  Spanish,  or,  when  it  is  desired  to 
include  Brazil  (a  Portuguese  country),  ''Latin"  Amer- 
ica, referring  to  the  other  parts  of  the  northern  con- 
tinent as  "Teutonic  America." 

The  aboriginal  tribes  with  which  the  English  and 
French  came  in  contact  when  they  settled  the  Atlantic 
coasts  of  North  America  were  scattered  over  a  vast 
wooded  region,  lived  mainly  by  the  chase,  and  had 
formed  no  habits  of  regular  industry.  They  were 
mostly  fierce  fighters,  proud  and  dogged,  unwilling  to 
bear  any  control,  and  it  was  found  impracticable  to 
make  slaves  of  them,  or  use  them  for  any  kind  of 
regular  labor.  They  were  unfitted  for  it,  and  it  would 
have  cost  the  settlers  more  effort  to  compel  the  Indians 
to  cut  dov^^n  trees  and  till  the  ground  than  to  do  the 
same  things  themselves.  There  was,  accordingly, 
never  any  question  of  Indian  slavery  or  serfdom, 
either  on  the  Atlantic  coasts  or  further  inland,  as  the 
march  of  colonization  advanced  to  the  Mississippi, 


THE  TWO  AMERICAS  233 

and  across  the  plains,  and  mountains  to  the  Pacific, 
nor  was  there  more  than  a  very  Httle  intermarriage 
between  the  settlers  and  the  natives. 

Other  reasons  besides  those  connected  with  labor 
prevented  any  admixture  in  these  regions  of  the  white 
with  the  native  races.  There  was  little  social  inter- 
course, because  the  Indians,  even  the  majority  of  the 
less  warlike  tribes  of  Virginia  and  the  regions  south 
of  Virginia,  were  driven  out,  or  retired,  or  died  out. 
Their  barbarous  way  of  life  drew  a  sharp  line  between 
them  and  the  white  intruders.  The  latter,  moreover, 
brought  their  women  with  them,  and  had  less  tempta- 
tion to  seek  wives  among  the  Indians.  Thus  it  was 
only  among  the  French  voyagers  and  trappers  of  the 
region  round  and  beyond  the  Great  Lakes  that  any 
mixed  race  grew  up,  half  white,  half  Indian,  and  this 
race  has  now  almost  disappeared. 

In  Spanish  America,  the  case  was  quite  different. 
Both  in  Mexico,  in  parts  of  Central  America,  and  in 
Peru  there  was  a  large  sedentary  population  of  abo- 
rigines, cultivating  the  soil  and  trained  to  industry 
during  many  generations.  The  conquerors  imme- 
diately turned  them  into  serfs,  parceling  them  out 
among  the  persons  who  received  land  grants,  and  who 
therefore  lived  on  the  produce  of  this  semi-servile 
labor.  The  result  was  that  whereas  in  Teutonic  Amer- 
ica there  grew  up,  slowly  at  first,  a  white  agricultural 
population  and  ultimately  a  white  manufacturing  pop- 
ulation also,  in  Spanish  America  agriculture  was  left 
almost  entirely  to  the  aborigines,  the  pure  white  popu- 


234  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

lation  increased  hardly  at  all,  and  because  few  new- 
settlers  came.  There  appeared,  however,  and  that 
within  two  or  three  generations,  a  considerable  half- 
breed,  or  mestizo,  population,  which  has  come,  after 
three  centuries,  to  constitute  most  of  the  upper  class 
and  practically  the  whole  of  the  middle  class  in  all 
but  two  of  the  republics. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  divergent  careers  of 
the  two  sets  of  European  colonists,  Spaniards  and 
Englishmen,  a  divergence  which  ultimately  gave  to 
the  social  system  of  each  set  its  own  peculiar  struc- 
ture. Two  other  circumstances  helped  to  deepen  the 
divergence.  One  was  the  hot  climate  of  most  parts  of 
Spanish  America,  which  made  field  labor,  or,  indeed, 
any  kind  of  manual  labor,  more  distasteful  to  men  of 
European  stock  than  such  labor  was  in  the  northern 
parts  of  Teutonic  America.  The  same  cause,  it  need 
hardly  be  said,  had  much  to  do  with  the  importation 
of  negroes  on  a  vast  scale  into  the  southern  parts  of 
the  British  North  American  colonies.  Such  an  expe- 
dient was  less  needed  in  Mexico  and  Peru,  because 
they  possessed  (as  already  remarked)  a  native  popu- 
lation that  could  be  reduced  to  serfdom.  In  Spanish 
America,  accordingly,  all  forms  of  labor  connected 
with  land  were  left  by  the  European  settlers  to  the 
natives,  and  no  white  peasantry  grew  up. 

The  other  circumstance  was  that  whereas  in  Teu- 
tonic America  few  or  no  mines  were  discovered  or 
worked  for  a  long  time  after  the  country  had  begun 
to  be  occupied,  the  Spaniards,  having  hit  upon  regions 


THE  TWO  AMERICAS  235 

rich,  some  of  them  in  gold,  many  of  them  in  silver, 
began  greedily  to  exploit  this  natural  wealth  and 
forced  the  natives  to  toil  for  them  in  this  (to  the  na- 
tive particularly  odious)  kind  of  work.  The  destruc- 
tion of  human  life  was  terrible,  but  in  those  days  life 
was  little  regarded.  The  development  of  mining  in 
Spanish  America,  immense  for  the  sixteenth,  seven- 
teenth, and  eighteenth  centuries,  when  comparatively 
little  was  going  on  elsewhere,  had  many  effects  for 
Spain  and  for  the  world.  For  Mexico  and  Peru  the 
most  direct  effect  was  to  enrich  a  good  many  persons 
without  any  industrial  efforts  put  forth  by  themselves, 
and  to  lead  the  colonies  as  a  whole  to  rely  less  upon 
agriculture  than  men  did  in  the  English  colonies.  A 
luxurious  style  of  living  established  itself  in  the  city 
of  Mexico  and  in  Lima,  most  unlike  the  frugal  sim- 
plicity of  Boston  or  Providence,  or  even  of  Philadel- 
phia or  New  York  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

It  has  often  been  observed  that  whereas  the  men 
who  went  to  the  northern  English  colonies  were 
mostly  small  farmers  or  townsfolk  of  the  trading  or 
artisan  classes,  the  Spanish  emigrants  were  mainly 
adventurers,  making  gold  and  silver  their  first  object, 
the  acquisition  of  plantations  or  mines  to  be  worked 
by  natives  the  second.  This  stamped  on  Spanish  colo- 
nial society  what  can  hardly  be  called  an  aristocratic 
character,  for  many  of  the  emigrant-adventurers,  like 
the  Pizarros  brothers,  sprang  from  a  humble  social 
stratum,  but  yet  a  character  which  lacked  both  the  sen 
timent  of  equality  and  a  respect  for  industry. 


236  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

Not  less  marked  than  these  social  differences  were 
those  which  belonged  to  the  sphere  of  government 
and  administration.  The  English  colonies  were  for 
the  most  part  left  to  govern  themselves.  Each  had  not 
only  its  colonial  assembly,  but  also  local  assemblies  for 
towns  and  counties,  along  with  the  English  arrange- 
ments for  securing  justice  in  civil  and  criminal  mat- 
ters by  juries.  Even  the  governors  sent  out  from 
England,  where  such  there  were,  interfered  but  little 
with  the  power  of  the  colonists  to  regulate  their  own 
affairs.  The  Crown  did  occasionally  interfere,  but 
these  instances  and  the  resistance  which  arbitrary  in- 
terference evoked  bear  witness  to  the  general  adher- 
ence to  the  principles  of  local  self-government.  In  the 
Spanish  colonies,  on  the  other  hand,  all  power  re- 
mained in  the  Crown,  and  was  exercised  either  di- 
rectly from  Spain  by  ordinances  made  or  orders  is- 
sued there,  or  else  through  the  viceroy  or  captain- 
general  of  each  colony.  Much  to  the  disgust  of  the 
criollos,  or  men  born  in  the  colonies,  nearly  all  lucra- 
tive posts  were  reserved  for  persons  of  Spanish  birth, 
who  obtained  them  by  court  favor  at  home,  or  perhaps 
from  a  viceroy,  who  had  brought  them  out  in  his  suite. 
In  the  field  of  religion  the  contrast  was  even  greater. 
Ecclesiastical  power  had  in  Spanish  America  been  al- 
most equal  to  civil.  Although  the  Crown  of  Spain 
yielded  less  authority  to  the  Pope  in  its  transatlantic 
than  it  did  in  its  European  dominions,  the  church  as 
a  whole,  archbishops  and  bishops,  the  orders  and  the 
holy  office,  were,  in  America,  an  immense  and  omni- 


THE  TWO  AMERICAS  237 

present  force,  with  whom  even  viceroys  had  to  reckon, 
for  their  influence  was  great  in  the  court  at  home  as 
well  as  over  the  minds  and  conduct  of  the  colonists. 
Society  was  saturated  with  clericalism,  and  a  taint 
of  heterodoxy  more  dangerous  than  one  of  disloyalty. 

Putting  all  these  things  together,  it  can  be  seen 
how  little  in  common  Teutonic  America  and  Spanish 
America  had  when  the  colonial  period  ended  for  each 
of  them  by  its  severance  from  the  mother  country. 
They  were,  in  fact,  unlike  in  everything,  except  their 
position  in  the  Western  Hemisphere.  Few,  and  far 
from  friendly,  had  been  their  relations.  There  had 
been  very  little  commercial  intercourse,  but  a  great 
deal  of  fighting.  English  and  American  buccaneers 
and  pirates, — the  two  classes  were  practically  the 
same, — had  been  wont  to  prey  upon  Spanish  colonial 
commerce  and  pillage  Spanish  colonial  cities.  There 
probably  remained  more  aversion  between  the  two 
races  in  America  than  in  Europe,  for  in  their  hostility 
to  France  during  the  eighteenth  century  the  people  of 
Britain  had  forgotten  their  hostility  to  Spain.  To  the 
New  Englander  or  Virginian  the  colonial  Spaniard 
had  been  a  Papist  and  a  persecutor,  to  the  colonial 
Spaniard  his  neighbors  on  the  north  were  pirates  and 
heretics. 

What  change  was  made  by  the  two  wars  against 
the  two  mother  countries  and  the  independence  which 
followed?  It  might  have  seemed  likely  that  now, 
when  both  parts  of  the  New  World  were  disconnected 
from  the  Old  and  both  had  republican  forms  of  gov- 


238  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

ernment,  they  might  begin  to  draw  together.  Inde- 
pendence, though  it  came  nearly  forty  years  later  to 
Spanish  America,  made  more  difference  there  than 
it  had  done  to  the  English  colonies.  Those  who  had 
been  kept  in  leading  strings  by  Spain  were  now  left 
to  their  own  devices.  Ill-built  and  ill-steered  had  been 
the  vessel  that  carried  their  fortunes,  but  now  they 
were  left  to  drift  and  be  tossed  about  with  neithef 
compass  nor  pilot.  An  era  of  civil  wars  and  military 
revolutions  set  in,  which  lasted  in  Mexico  nearly  half 
a  century,  in  Peru  and  Argentina  still  longer,  and 
which  seems  to  have  become  chronic  in  some  of  the 
more  backward  states.  While  Teutonic  America  was 
making  enormous  strides  in  population  and  prosperity, 
intestine  strife  checked  all  progress,  educational  and 
material,  in  the  Spanish  lands  during  two  generations. 
It  is  to  the  last  thirty  years  of  the  nineteenth  century 
that  the  development  of  Mexico,  Argentina,  Chile,  and 
Uruguay  belongs.  After  the  Latin-American  coun- 
tries had  become  independent,  there  was  no  more  com- 
mercial intercourse  between  them  and  the  United 
States  than  there  had  been  in  colonial  days  and  no 
more  community  of  feeling.  Much  sympathy  had  been 
expressed  by  the  latter  with  the  colonies  in  their 
struggle  against  Spain,  and  the  declaration  made  by 
John  Quincy  Adams  in  concert  with  the  English 
George  Canning  against  any  interference  by  the  Holy 
Alliance  to  support  the  cause  of  monarchy  in  the  New 
World,  was  gratefully  welcomed  by  the  insurgents. 
But    no    friendship    between    English-speaking    and 


THE  TWO  AMERICAS  239 

Spanish-speaking  men  grew  up,  and  the  war  of  the 
United  States  against  Mexico  in  1845,  undertaken  not 
so  much  because  there  were  grievances  against  Mex- 
ico as  from  a  desire  to  extend  the  area  of  slavery  in 
the  United  States,  and  strengthen  the  slave  power 
itself,  exposed  United  States  policy  to  suspicions  that 
sank  deep   into  the   Spanish-American  mind. 

From  this  consideration  of  the  past  relations  of 
the  two  American  continents,  let  us  return  to  the 
divergence  of  their  fortunes.  At  the  time  of  the 
discovery,  the  regions  which  passed  under  the  rule  of 
Spain  were  richer,  more  advanced  in  the  arts  of  life, 
and  far  more  populous  than  those  whose  settlement 
began  with  the  expeditions  of  Champlain  and  Raleigh. 
We  have  no  data  for  guessing  at  the  population  of 
the  New  World  either  in  1500  or  in  1600,  but  evi- 
dently there  were  in  Mexico  and  Central  America  far 
more  inhabitants  than  in  all  the  rest  of  the  northern 
continent  taken  together.  As  regards  South  America, 
the  empire  of  the  Incas  alone  probably  contained 
from  nine  to  eleven  millions  of  persons,  a  number 
many  times  greater  than  that  of  all  the  aborigines 
that  at  any  one  time  dwelt  between  the  Arctic  Circle 
and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Even  in  1800  the  population 
of  Mexico  alone,  without  counting  South  America, 
was  far  larger  than  that  of  the  United  States  and 
Canada.  But  from  1810,  when  the  revolt  of  the 
Spanish  colonies  began,  down  till  1860,  the  growth  of 
those  colonies  was  slow,  and  in  some  there  was  even 
retrogression.      Meanwhile    the    United  States,    and 


240  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

latterly,  Canada  also,  have  been  advancing  with  un- 
exampled speed,  so  that  now  their  population,  about 
108  millions,  far  exceeds  that  of  all  the  Spanish  re- 
publics in  both  continents.  Their  hotter  countries 
were  at  one  time  more  populous  than  the  temperate ; 
now  the  reverse  holds.  If  we  regard  wealth,  there  is, 
of  course,  no  comparison  at  all  between  Teutonic 
America,  as  it  stands  today,  and  the  southern  regions. 
Yet  Spain  was  long  supposed  to  have  got  by  far  the 
best  parts  of  the  New  World,  not  so  much  because 
they  had  tropical  productiveness,  as  in  respect  of  the 
quantity  of  the  precious  metals  they  contained.  The 
economic  change  from  the  sixteenth  century  to  the 
twentieth  which  the  progress  of  natural  science  and 
mechanical  invention  has  brought  about  can  hardly 
be  better  illustrated  than  by  the  changed  importance 
which  coal,  iron,  and  copper  have  for  our  time  when 
compared  with  that  which  gold  and  silver  had  in  the 
days  of  Charles  the  Fifth. 

When  the  North  American  colonies  separated  from 
England,  they  were  a  small  nation  of  less  than  three 
millions  on  the  Atlantic  Coast.  Thence  they  spread 
out  over  the  vast  spaces  beyond  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains, then  across  the  Mississippi,  finally  over  the 
Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific,  remaining  one  nation 
over  a  territory  thirty  times  greater  than  that  which 
had  been  actually  settled  at  the  time  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. The  same  process  happened  later  and  on  a  smaller 
scale  in  the  dominion  which  remained  to  England 
in  the  north.     The  Canadians  have  spread  out  from 


THE  TWO  AMERICAS  241 

the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Vancouver  Island, 
also  remaining  one  people.  Thus  Teutonic  America 
now  consists  of  two  nations  only.  How  different  the 
fate  of  the  Spanish  colonies.  Scattered  over  a  space 
nine  thousand  miles  long  from  San  Francisco  to  Ma- 
gellan's Straits,  in  days  before  railways  existed  and 
with  even  steam  navigation  in  its  infancy,  they  did 
not  think  of  trying  to  maintain  political  connection 
across  vast  distances,  and  naturally  fell  apart  into 
many  independent  states,  roughly  corresponding  to 
the  administrative  divisions  of  colonial  days.  The 
number  of  these  states  has  varied  from  time  to  time. 
At  present  there  are  six  on  the  North  American  con- 
tinent, and  ten  on  the  South  American,  without  count- 
ing Portuguese  Brazil  and  the  three  island  republics 
of  Cuba,  San  Domingo,  and  Hayti.  Out  of  the  lands 
that  obeyed  Charles  the  Fifth,  nineteen  states  have 
grown,  all  (except  Hayti)  speaking  Spanish,  while 
the  English-speaking  peoples  are  but  two. 

They  are  alike  in  being  (always  excepting  Canada) 
republican  in  the  outward  forms  of  their  governments ; 
that  is  to  say,  there  is  nowhere  any  official  called  a 
king.  How  far  the  governments  of  most  Spanish- 
American  states  are  from  being  republican  in  spirit 
and  working  everybody  knows.  To  most  men's  minds, 
however,  the  form  means  a  great  deal.  So,  too,  in 
Spanish  America  people  who  acquiesce  in  transitory 
dictatorships  would  be  horrified  at  the  idea  of  a 
hereditary   sovereign,   however  constitutional. 

Latin  America  consists  of  two  separate  state-sys- 


242  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

terns.  One  includes  Mexico  and  the  five  small  Central 
American  republics,  two  of  which,  Costa  Rica  and 
Salvador,  are  peaceful  within  and  seldom  embroiled 
abroad,  while  the  other  three  have  had  more  chequered 
careers.  Members  of  this  group  have  had  a  good 
deal  to  do  with  the  United  States,  but  seldom  come 
into  contact  with  the  South  American  countries.  The 
little  state  of  Panama,  which  is  virtually  under  the 
protection  of  the  United  States,  may  now  be  deemed 
a  "buffer  state,"  and  no  Central  American  republic 
has  a  navy.  The  larger  group  is  composed  of  the 
eleven  South  American  states.  It  presents  some  an- 
alogies to  the  Europe  of  the  eighteenth  century  in 
which  there  were  several  great  powers  "playing  the 
great  game"  against  one  another  and  against  the 
smaller  powers,  nominally  in  the  interest  of  that  so- 
called  balance  of  power  which  was  to  prevent  any  one 
from  dominating  the  others,  but  often  in  reality  for 
the  sake  of  appropriating  territory,  whenever  a  dy- 
nastic pretext  could  be  found.  In  this  group  there 
are  three  great  powers,  Argentina,  Brazil,  and  Chile; 
and  when  these  three  stand  together,  they  can  keep 
all  the  rest  quiet,  especially  if  (as  they  may  usually 
expect)  the  United  States  throws  its  influence  into 
the  scale  of  peace.  At  present  these  three  are  toler- 
ably friendly,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  they  should 
not  remain  so.  Between  them  there  exists  no  longer 
such  territorial  controversies  as  disturb  the  repose 
of  Ecuador,  Colombia,  and  Peru. 

Some  publicists  have  suggested  that  troubles  might 


THE  TWO  AMERICAS  243 

arise  to  affect  South  America  from  without  if  Japan 
or  China  were  to  insist  on  flooding  her  with  their 
emigrants,  and  that  if  this  were  attempted  gainst  one 
of  the  weaker  South  American  repubUcs,  either  the 
greater  South  American  powers,  or  the  United  States, 
or  both,  might  be  tempted  to  intervene.  There  are  at 
present  some  Chinese  and  a  very  few  Japanese  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  but  no  more  were  arriving  in  1910.  Any 
danger  of  this  nature  seems  remote  and  improbable. 

With  these  three  things,  however, —  repubHcan 
forms,  social  equality,  and  detachment  from  European 
politics, — the  list  of  the  things  which  the  two  Amer- 
icas have  in  common  ends.  Far  more  numerous  and 
more  important  are  the  points  in  which  they  stand 
contrasted. 

Many  causes  have  gone  to  the  making  of  the  con- 
trast. Race  and  religion,  climate  and  history  have  all 
had  their  share.  The  contrast  appears  both  in  ideas 
and  in  temperament.  The  Spanish  American  is  more 
proud  and  more  sensitive  to  any  slight.  He  is  not  so 
punctilious  in  his  politeness  as  is  the  Spaniard  of 
Europe,  and  is,  indeed,  in  some  countries  a  little 
brusque  or  offhand  in  manners  and  speech.  But  he 
feels  a  slight  keenly;  and  he  knows  how  to  respect 
the  susceptibilities  of  his  fellow-citizens.  I  will  not 
say  that  he  is  more  pleasure-loving  than  the  North 
American,  for  the  latter  has  developed  of  late  years  a 
passion  for  amusement  which  would  have  startled  his 
Puritan  ancestors.  But  he  is  less  assiduous  and  less 
strenuous    in    work,    being,    in  this   respect,    unlike 


244  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

the  immigrant  who  comes  from  Old  Spain,  especially 
the  Gallego,  who  is  the  soul  of  thrift  and  the  steadiest 
of  toilers.  He  is  not  so  fond  of  commercial  business, 
nor  so  apt  for  it,  nor  so  eager  to  "get  on''  and  get 
rich.  The  process  of  money-making  has  not  for  him 
that  fatal  attraction  which  enslaves  so  many  capable 
men  in  the  United  States  and  (to  a  less  degree)  in 
England  and  Germany,  leaving  them  to  forget  the 
things  that  make  life  worth  living,  till  it  is  too  late 
in  life  to  enjoy  them.  In  South  America  things  are 
taken  easily  and  business  concerns  are  largely  in  the 
hands  of  foreigners.  The  South  American — and  here 
I  include  the  Mexican — is  an  excitable  being  and 
prone  to  express  his  feelings  forcibly,  having  absorbed 
from  the  Indians  none  of  their  stolid  taciturnity.  He 
is  generally  good-natured  and  hospitable,  and  responds 
quickly  to  anything  said  or  done  which  shows  appre- 
ciation of  his  country  and  its  ways.  Private  friend- 
ship or  family  relationship  have  a  great  effect  on  his 
conduct,  and  often  an  undue  effect,  for  one  is  every- 
where told  that  the  difficulty  of  securing  justice  in 
these  republics  lies  not  so  much  in  the  corruptibility 
of  judges,  as  in  their  tendency  to  be  influenced  by 
personal  partiality.  Everything  goes  by  what  is  called 
favor. 

These  contrasts  of  temperament  between  North 
and  South  Americans  give  rise  to  different  tastes  and 
a  different  view  of  life,  so  that,  broadly  speaking,  the 
latter  are,  accordingly,  not  '"sympathetic"  either  to 
the  former  or  to  Englishmen.    To  say  that  they  are 


THE  TWO  AMERICAS  245 

antipathetic  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  would 
be  going  too  far,  for  there  is  nothing  to  make  un- 
friendliness, nor,  indeed,  is  there  any  unfriendliness. 
But  both  North  Americans  and  Englishmen  are  built 
on  lines  of  thought  and  feeling  so  different  from  those 
which  belong  to  South  Americans  that  the  races  do 
not  draw  naturally  together,  and  find  it  hard  to  appre- 
ciate duly  one  another's  good  qualities. 

The  use  of  nicknames  has  a  certain  significance. 
In  South  America  a  North  American  or  Englishman 
is  popularly  called  a  ''Gringo,"  as  in  North  America 
a  person  speaking  Italian  or  Spanish  or  Portuguese  is 
vulgarly  called  a  ''Dago." 

Thus  we  return  to  the  question  when  we  started, 
and  ask  again  whether  there  is  any  sort  of  unity  or 
community  in  the  two  Americas.  Are  the  peoples  of 
these  continents  a  group  by  themselves,  nearer  to  one 
another  than  they  are  to  other  peoples,  possessing  a 
common  character,  common  ties  of  interest  and  feel- 
ing? Or  does  the  common  "American  name"  mean 
nothing  more  than  mere  local  juxtaposition  beyond 
the  Atlantic?  Is  it,  in  fact,  anything  more  than  a 
historical  accident? 

The  answer  would  seem  to  be  that  Teutonic  Amer- 
icans and  Spanish  Americans  have  nothing  in  com- 
mon except  two  names,  the  name  American  and  the 
name  Republican.  In  essentials  they  differ  as  widely 
as  either  of  them  does  from  any  other  group  of  peo- 
ples, and  far  more  widely  than  citizens  of  the  United 
States  differ  from  Englishmen,  or  than  Chileans  and 


246  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

Argentines   differ   from    Spaniards   and    Frenchmen. 

Nevertheless,  juxtaposition  has  induced  contact, 
though  a  contact  which  we  shall  find  to  have  been 
rather  political  than  intellectual  or  social.  It  is 
worth  while  to  examine  the  attitude  of  each  to  the 
other. 

When  the  Spanish  colonies  revolted  against  the 
Crown  of  Spain,  the  sympathy  of  the  United  States 
went  out  to  them  profusely,  and  continued  with  them 
throughout  the  war  and  long  after.  Their  victories 
were  acclaimed  as  victories  won  for  freedom  and  for 
America,  and  children  were  called  after  the  name  of 
Simon  Bolivar,  whose  exploits  in  Venezuela  had  early 
fixed  upon  him  the  attention  of  the  world,  and  have 
given  him  a  fame  in  excess  of  his  merits. 

The  struggling  colonists  were  cheered  by  this  as 
by  the  similar  sympathy  that  came  to  them  from  Eng- 
land. They  were,  as  already  observed,  grateful  for 
the  support  given  them  by  the  diplomacy  of  Can- 
ning and  John  Quincy  Adams,  and  when  they  framed 
their  constitutions,  took  that  of  the  United  States  for 
their  model.  Their  regard  for  the  United  States,  and 
confidence  in  its  purposes,  never  quite  recovered  the 
blow  given  by  the  M.exican  War  of  1846  and  the  an- 
nexation of  California;  but  this  change  of  sentiment 
did  not  affect  the  patronage  and  good-will  of  the 
United  States,  whose  people,  and  for  a  time  the  Eng- 
lish Whigs  also,  manifested  their  touching  faith  that 
countries  called  republics  must  needs  be  graced  by  re- 
publican virtues  and  were  entitled  to  favor  whenever 


THE  TWO  AMERICAS  247 

they  came  into  collision  with  monarchies.  This  tendency 
of  mind,  natural  in  the  days  when  the  monarchies  of 
continental  Europe  were  more  or  less  despotic,  has 
begun  to  die  down  of  late  years,  as  educated  men  have 
come  to  look  more  at  things  than  at  names,  and  as 
United  States  statesmen  found  themselves  from  time 
to  time  annoyed  by  the  perversity  or  shiftiness  of 
military  dictators  ruling  in  some  Spanish-American 
countries.  The  great  nation  has,  however,  gen- 
erally borne  such  provocation  with  patience,  abusing 
its  power  less  than  the  rulers  of  the  little  ones  abuse 
their  weakness.  For  many  years  after  the  achieve- 
ment by  the  Spanish  colonies  of  their  independence, 
a  political  tie  between  them  and  the  United  States 
was  found  in  the  declared  intention  of  the  latter  to 
resist  any  attempt  by  European  Powers  either  to  over- 
throw republican  government  in  any  American  state 
or  to  attempt  annexation  of  its  territory.  So  long  as 
any  such  action  was  feared  from  Europe,  the  pro- 
tection thus  promised  was  welcome,  and  the  United 
States  felt  a  corresponding  interest  in  their  clients. 
But  circumstances  alter  cases.  Today,  when  appre- 
hensions of  the  old  kind  have  vanished,  and  when 
some  of  the  South  American  states  feel  themselves 
already  powerful,  one  is  told  that  they  have  begun  to 
regard  the  situation  with  different  eyes.  ''Since  there 
are  no  longer  rain-clouds  coming  up  from  the  east, 
why  should  a  friend,  however  well-intentioned,  hold 
an  umbrella  over  us?  We  are  quite  able  to  do  that 
for  ourselves  if  necessary."     in  a  very  recent  bo^jX 


248  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

by  one  of  the  most  acute  and  thoughtful  of  North 
American  travelers,  there  occurs  a  passage  which 
presents  this  view: 

''Many  a  Chileno  and  Argentino  resents  the  idea 
of  our  Monroe  Doctrine  applying  in  any  sense  to  his 
country  and  declares  that  we  had  better  keep  it  at 
home.    He  regards  it  as  only  another  sign  of  our  over- 
weening national  conceit ;  and  on  mature  consideration 
it  does  seem  as  though  the  justification  for  the  doc- 
trine  both   in   its   original   and   in   its   present   form 
had  passed.     Europe  is  no  longer  ruled  by  despots 
who   desire  to  crush  the  liberties  of   their  subjects. 
As  is  frequently  remarked,  England  has  a  more  demo- 
cratic government  than  the  United  States.     In  all  the 
leading  countries  of  Europe  the  people  have  practi- 
cally as  much  to  say  about  the  government  as  they 
have  in  America.     There  is  not  the  slightest  danger 
that  any  European  tyrant  will  attempt  to  enslave  the 
weak    republics    of    this   hemisphere.      Furthermore, 
such    republics    as    Mexico,    Argentina    and    Brazil, 
Chile  and  Peru,  no  more  need  our  Monroe  Doctrine 
to  keep  them  from  being  robbed  of  their  territory  by 
European  nations,  than  does  Italy  or  Spain.    If  it  be 
true  that   some   of   the  others,   like  the  notoriously 
lawless  group  in  Central  America,  need  to  be  looked 
after  by  their  neighbors,  let  us  amend  our  outgrown 
Monroe  Doctrine,  as  has  already  been  suggested  by 
one  of  our  writers  on  International  Law,  so  as  to 
include  in  the  police  force  of  the  Western  Hemisphere 
those  who  have  been  able  to  practice  self-control." 


THE  TWO  AMERICAS  249 

As  regards  the  United  States  there  is  a  balance 
between  attraction  and  suspicion.  The  South  Ameri- 
cans desire  to  be  on  good  terms  with  her,  and  their 
wisest  statesmen  feel  the  value  of  her  diplomatic  ac- 
tion in  trying  to  preserve  peace  between  those  of 
their  republics  whose  smouldering  enmities  often 
threaten  to  burst  into  flame.  More  than  once  in  re- 
cent years  this  value  has  been  tested.  On  the  other 
hand,  as  has  already  been  observed,  they  are  jealous 
of  their  own  dignity,  and  quick  to  resent  anything 
bordering  on  a  threat,  even  when  addressed  not  to 
themselves,  but  to  some  other  republic.  It  is  as  the 
disinterested,  the  absolutely  disinterested  and  unself- 
ish, advocate  of  peace  and  good-will,  that  the  United 
States  will  have  most  influence  in  the  Western  Hemi- 
sphere, and  that  influence,  gently  and  tactfully  used, 
may  be  of  incalculable  service  to  mankind. 

The  matters  in  which  these  republics  are  wont  to 
imitate  or  draw  lessons  from  the  United  States  are 
education,  especially  scientific  and  technical  education, 
and  engineering.  Of  the  influence  upon  their  consti- 
tutions of  the  North  American  Federal  Constitution  I 
have  already  spoken.  Their  publicists  continue  to 
follow  with  attention  the  decisions  given  upon  the 
application  of  its  principles  to  new  conditions  as  they 
arise,  and  attach  value  to  the  opinions  of  North 
American  international  jurists.  Otherwise,  there  is 
little  intellectual  affinity,  and  still  less  temperamental 
sympathy.  The  South  Americans  do  not  feel  that  the 
name  "American"^  involves  any  closer  community  or 


250  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

co-operation  with  the  great  Teutonic  republic  of  the 
north  than  it  does  with  any  other  people  or  peoples. 
They  are  just  as  much  a  race  or  group  of  peoples 
standing  by  themselves  as  if  the  lands  they  occupy 
had  been  that  entirely  detached  continent  out  in  the 
southern  seas,  supposed  to  lie  far  away  from  all  other 
continents,  to  which  the  name  of  Amerigo  Vespucci 
was  first  applied. 

With  whom,  then,  have  the  Spanish  Americans 
real  affinities  of  mental  and  moral  constitution  ?  With 
the  peoples  of  southern  Europe.  If  any  one  likes 
to  call  them  the  "Latin"  peoples,  there  is  no  harm  in 
the  term  so  long  as  it  does  not  seem  to  ignore  the  fact 
that  there  exist  the  greatest  differences  between  Ital- 
ians and  Frenchmen  and  Spaniards,  for  whoever  has 
studied  the  history  and  the  literature  of  those  peo- 
ples knows  that  it  is  only  the  existence  of  still  more 
marked  differences  between  them  and  the  Teutonic 
peoples  that  makes  them  seem  to  resemble  one  an- 
other. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  the  relations  of  the 
Spanish  Americans  would  be  most  close  with  their 
motherland,  Old  Spain.  But  these  relations  are  not 
intimate,  and  have  never  been  so  since  the  War  of 
Independence.  Even  in  those  old  colonial  days,  when 
the  ports  were  closed  to  all  but  Spanish  vessels,  in 
order  to  stop  all  trade,  export  and  import,  except 
with  the  mother  country,  the  days  when  Englishmen 
and  Dutchmen  were  detested  as  heretics,  and  French- 
men as  dangerous  rivals,  there  was  an  undercurrent 


THE  TWO  AMERICAS  251 

of  anti-Spanish  feeling.  It  was  chiefly  due  to  the 
practice  of  reserving  all  well-paid  posts  for  natives 
of  Spain.  The  criollos,  as  they  were  called,  men  born 
in  the  colonies,  were  naturally  envious  of  the  strang- 
ers, and  resented  their  own  exclusion  and  disparage- 
ment. They  suffered  in  many  ways,  economic  as  well 
as  sentimental,  both  from  laws  issued  in  Spain  and 
from  authority  exercised  on  the  spot  by  men  from 
Europe  who  did  not  share  their  sentiments  and  flouted 
their  local  opinion.  Accordingly,  when  the  separation 
came,  there  was  less  sense  of  the  breaking  of  a  family 
tie  than  there  had  been  among  the  North  American 
colonists  in  the  earlier  stages  of  their  revolution. 
This  antagonism  to  Spanish  government  was,  of 
course,  accentuated  and  fenvenomed  by  the  long  dura- 
tion of  the  struggle  for  independence  which  in  Peru 
lasted  for  fifteen  years,  and  in  the  course  of  which 
many  severities  were  exercised  by  the  governors  and 
generals  who  fought  for  the  Crown.  As  for  the  In- 
dians, the  oppressions  they  suffered  and  the  memory 
of  the  hideous  cruelties  with  which  the  rebellion  of 
Tupac  Amaru  was  suppressed,  made  the  name  of 
Spain  hateful  to  them.  After  the  flag  of  Castile  had 
ceased  to  fly  anywhere  on  the  continent,  and  the  last 
Spanish  officials  had  departed,  there  were  few  occa- 
sions for  communication  of  any  kind.  Spain  herself 
was  in  a  depressed  and  distracted  state  for  many 
years  after  1825.  There  is  today  little  trade  between 
her  and  the  New  World,  nor  is  there,  except  to  Mex- 
ico and  Argentina,  any  large  Spanish  immigration. 


252  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

Where  it  does  exist,  it  is  valued,  for  the  men  who 
come  from  northern  Spain  (as  most  settlers  do)  are 
of  excellent  quality.  Family  ties  between  colonists 
and  the  motherland  have  become  few  or  loose.  Sel- 
dom in  Spanish  America  does  one  hear  any  one  speak 
of  the  place  his  ancestors  came  from,  as  one  con- 
stantly hears  North  Americans  talk  of  the  English 
village  where  are  the  graves  of  their  forefathers. 
Seldom  do  South  Americans  or  Mexicans  seem  to 
visit  Spain,  either  to  see  her  ancient  cities  and  her 
superb  pictures  or  to  study  her  present  economic  prob- 
lems. They  do  not  feel  as  if  she  had  anything  to 
teach  them,  and  her  modern  literature  has  apparently 
little  message  for  them.  In  all  these  respects  the  con- 
trast between  the  position  of  Spain  towards  South 
America  and  that  of  Britain  towards  North  America 
strikes  an  Englishman  with  surprise.  If  that  revival 
in  Spanish  literature  and  art,  of  which  there  have 
recently  been  signs,  should  continue,  and  if  Spanish 
commerce  should  develop,  the  position  may  change, 
for  the  tie  of  language  will  always  have  its  impor- 
tance. 

I  may  add  in  this  connection  that  among  the  edu- 
cated classes  of  Spanish  America  one  finds  few  signs 
of  interest  in  the  history  of  Old  Spain  which  the 
North  Americans  take  in  the  history  of  England. 
The  former  have  no  link  of  free  institutions  brought 
from  the  old  soil  to  flourish  in  a  new  one.  Is  it  be- 
cause the  Conquistadores  were  Spaniards,  or  because 
many  of  their  deeds  shock  modern  consciences,  or  be- 


THE  TWO  AMERICAS  253 

cause  it  is  felt  that  to  honor  them  would  be  an  offense 
to  Indian  sentiment,  faint  as  that  sentiment  is  in  Mex- 
ico and  still  fainter  in  Peru,  that  there  are  no  statues 
or  other  honorific  memorials  of  these  brilliant  and  ter- 
rible figures?  Even  the  statue  of  Queen  Isabella  the 
Catholic,  which  stood  in  Havana,  was  shipped  back 
to  Spain,  after  the  independence  of  Cuba  had  been  de- 
clared in  1899.  There  is  no  montmient  to  Cortez  in 
Mexico,  nor  to  Pizarro  in  Lima,  nor  (so  far  as  I 
know)  any  statue  of  any  of  his  companions  except 
one  of  Pedro  de  Valdivia,  set  up  on  the  hill  of  Santa 
Lucia  in  Santiago,  where  he  built  his  fort  and  founded 
the  capital  of  Chile.  On  the  other  hand,  Cuahtemoc 
or  Cuatemozin,  the  last  of  the  Aztec  kings,  has  a  statue 
in  the  park  between  the  city  of  Mexico  and  the  castle 
palace  of  Chapultepec,  and  the  name  of  Caupolican, 
the  Araucanian  chieftain  whom  the  Spaniards  shot 
to  death  with  arrows,  like  St.  Sebastian,  is  about  to  be 
commemorated  by  a  charitable  foundation  at  Temuco 
in  Chile. 

Between  Italy  and  Latin  America  there  never  were 
any  direct  relations  except,  of  course,  ecclesiastical 
relations  with  Rome,  until  in  recent  years  Italian 
immigrants  began  to  pour  into  Argentina  and  south- 
ern Brazil.  As  many  of  these  go  backwards  and  for- 
wards, and  as  swift  lines  of  ocean  steamers  have  been 
established  between  Buenos  Aires  and  the  ports  of 
Italy,  there  is  now  a  good  deal  of  intercourse,  but 
this  has  not  so  far  led  to  any  closer  connection  either 
political  or  intellectual.     The  Italian  immigrants  be- 


254  SOUTH  AMERICAN  LIFE 

long  almost  entirely  to  the  scantily  educated  classes, 
and  have  brought  with  them  little  that  is  Italian  except 
their  language  and  their  habits  of  industry. 

But  are  the  South  Americans  really  to  be  classed 
among  south  or  west  European  peoples?  May  they 
not  be — if  one  can  speak  of  them  as  a  whole,  ignor- 
ing the  differences  between  Chileans,  Argentines,  and 
Brazilians — a  new  thing  in  the  world,  a  racial  group 
with  a  character  all  its  own? 

This  is  their  own  view  of  themselves.  It  would 
need  more  knowledge  than  I  possess  either  to  deny 
or  to  affirm  it.  They  are  all,  except  Argentines  and 
Uruguayans,  largely  Indian  or  (in  Brazil)  African 
in  blood.  Even  the  Uruguayans  and  Argentines  strike 
one  as  differing  at  least  as  much  from  Spaniards  as 
North  Americans  differ  from  Englishmen.  They  give 
the  impression  of  being  still  nations  in  the  making, 
whose  type  or  types,  both  the  common  type  of  all 
Spanish  America  and  the  special  types  of  each  nation, 
will  grow  more  sharp  and  definite  as  the  years  roll 
on  and  as  life  becomes  for  them  more  rich  and  more 
intense. 

When  this  happens  and  the  world  of  a.d.  2000 
recognizes  a  definite  South  American  type  (or  types), 
may  there  be  thence  expected  any  distinctively  new 
contribution  to  the  world's  stock  of  thought,  of  lit- 
erature, of  art?  Each  nation  is  in  the  long  run  judged 
and  valued  by  the  rest  of  the  world  more  for  such 
contributions  than  for  anything  else.  There  is  a  sense 
in  which  Shakespeare  is  greater  glory  to  England  than 


THE  TWO  AMERICAS  255 

the  empire  of  India.  Homer  and  Vergil,  Plato  and 
Tacitus  are  a  gift  made  by  the  ancient  world  to  all 
the  ages,  more  precious,  because  more  enduring,  than 
any  achievements  in  war,  or  government,  or  commerce. 

That  there  is  vitality  and  virility  in  the  Spanish- 
American  peoples  appears  from  the  number  of  strong, 
bold,  forceful  men  who  have  figured  in  their  history, 
including  one,  the  Mexican  Juarez,  of  pure,  and  many 
of  mixed,  Indian  blood.  Few,  indeed,  have  shown 
that  higher  kind  of  greatness  which  lies  in  the  union 
of  large  constructive  ideas  with  decisive  energy  in 
action,  the  Napoleonic  or  Bismarckian  gift.  In  most 
of  the  republics,  political  conditions  have  been  so  un- 
stable as  to  give  little  scope  for  constructive  states- 
manship. Still  there  is  no  want  of  vigor,  and  it  is 
something  to  have  produced  in  San  Martin  one  truly 
heroic  figure  in  whom  brilliant  military  and  political 
talents  were  united  to  a  lofty  and  disinterested  char- 
acter. 

If  Latin  America  has  not  yet  produced  any  thinker 
or  poet  or  artist  even  of  the  second  rank,  this  will  not 
surprise  any  one  who  knows  what  was  her  condition 
before  the  War  of  Independence  and  what  it  has  been 
from  that  time  till  now.  Could  any  one  of  those  an- 
cient sages  whom  Dante  heard  in  Limbo,  speaking 
with  voices  sweet  and  soft,  have  been  brought  back 
to  earth  and  permitted  to  survey  Europe  as  it  was  in 
the  welter  of  the  tenth  century,  such  a  one  might 
have  thought  that  art  and  letters,  as  well  as  freedom 
and  order,  had  forever  vanished  from  the  earth.^ 


AUTHORSHIP  OF  CHAPTERS 


a.  Compiled  by  the  editor. 

b,  Compiled  by  the  editor. 

Cj  Robert  E.  Speare's  South  American  Problems,  and 
Thomas  C.  Dawson's  The  South  American 
Republics,  published  by  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 

d,  Thomas  C.  Dawson's  South  American  Republics. 

e,  Albert  Edwards'  Panama,  published  by  the  Mac- 

millan  Co.,  New  York. 

/,     Albert  Edwards'  Panama. 

gy    Dawson's  South  American  Republics. 

h,     Robert  E.  Speare  and  Charles  M.  Pepper. 

i,  Charles  M.  Pepper's  From  Panama  to  Patagonia, 
A.  C.  MbClurg,  Chicago. 

/,      Charles  M.  Pepper,  From  Panama  to  Patagonia. 

ky  Adapted  from  Pepper's  From  Panama  to  Pata- 
gonia. 

I,  George  Clemenceau's  South  America  Today,  G.  P. 
Putnam's  Sons,  New  York. 

m,    Clemenceau's  South  America  Today. 

n,  From  Albert  Hale's  The  South  American,  The 
Bobbs-Merrill  Co.,  Indianapolis. 

0,  Hiram  Bingham,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly, 
December,  1910. 

pj     Honorable  James  Bryce. 


SBV 


